MarketPR
NASA has selected Relativity Space — the rocket company acquired last year by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt after the company stumbled on its path to orbit — for a Mars mission, putting it in direct competition with SpaceX for interplanetary launch.
The award marks a sharp turn for a company that entered Schmidt's portfolio under difficulty. For the first time, the contest to reach Mars has two named players with a NASA mandate behind them.
A Troubled Track Record Meets a High-Stakes Assignment Relativity Space did not arrive at this contract from a position of strength.
The company had struggled to reach orbit before Schmidt's acquisition last year — a gap in operational history that no government selection erases.
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