Ex-Google CEO's Relativity Space selected for NASA Mars orbiter mission

NASA has selected Relativity Space, a private aerospace company led by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, to support its upcoming Mars orbiter mission. The collaboration will see Relativity provide the spacecraft and rocket to deploy NASA’s Aeolus probe into Martian orbit, with a planned launch in 2028.

The Aeolus probe, developed since 2017, will carry four NASA-built instruments to study Mars’ atmospheric conditions, including temperature, dust, wind, and clouds. The mission aims to collect data that could improve the safety of future Mars landings, both crewed and uncrewed. NASA will fund the scientific instruments for at least one Mars year, while Relativity Space will be responsible for maintaining the spacecraft.

This partnership highlights the growing role of public-private collaborations in space exploration. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman emphasized that such partnerships allow the agency to leverage commercial innovation and investment, accelerating scientific progress and reducing the time needed to deliver critical data for future Mars missions.

The announcement follows the recent loss of NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, which studied Mars’ atmosphere and played a key role in the Mars Relay Network. The loss of MAVEN underscores the importance of new missions like Aeolus in maintaining continuous scientific observation of the Red Planet.