NASA adds Relativity’s Terran R to launch-services roster

(SpaceEnergy) NASA has added Relativity Space’s methane-fuelled Terran R rocket to its Launch Services II contract, making the reusable vehicle eligible to compete for future agency missions.

NASA awarded US launch company Relativity Space an NLS II contract through the programme’s annual on-ramp provision. The multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity framework has an ordering period through June 2030 and overall performance period through December 2032.

The award does not itself assign Terran R a NASA mission. It instead makes the launch service available for future orders supporting NASA’s human spaceflight, science and technology programmes, as well as launch services NASA can provide to other US government agencies.

Terran R is a two-stage reusable rocket powered by 13 Aeon R engines on its first stage and one vacuum-optimised Aeon V engine on its second stage. Both engine types burn liquid oxygen and methane using a high-pressure gas-generator cycle.

Relativity specifies 15.6MN total lift-off thrust and payload capacity of 23,500kg to low Earth orbit with downrange recovery, or 33,500kg in an expendable configuration. The company currently plans to begin launching Terran R from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in late 2026.