Tim Ellis

Tim is the Co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space, the first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader for satellite constellations. Disrupting 60 years of global aerospace manufacturing, Relativity is developing the first and only aerospace platform to integrate machine learning, software, and robotics with metal 3D printing technology to build and launch rockets and other aerospace products in days instead of years, with the long-term goal of building the future of humanity in space. Since cofounding Relativity, Tim has helped change the future of space exploration by expanding the possibilities of additive metal manufacturing. Under his leadership, Relativity developed the largest robotic metal 3D printer in the world and tested its entirely 3D printed Aeon rocket engine over 190 times, on track to launching Relativity’s Terran 1, the world’s first 3D printed launch vehicle. Terran 1 has won publicly announced launch contracts to support Iridium, Telesat, Spaceflight Industries, Momentus, Mu Space. Tim played a leading role in closing hundreds of millions of dollars in partnership with the U.S. Government, including securing the first-ever US Air Force launch site award to a venture backed company at Cape Canaveral, and exclusive 20-year agreements for multiple test sites and a 220,000-square-foot factory at NASA Stennis Space Center. Prior to Relativity, Tim was responsible for bringing metal 3D printing in-house at Blue Origin and served as a Propulsion Development Engineer on Crew Capsule RCS thrusters, BE-4, and New Glenn. He holds an MS and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from USC, where he played a leadership role in launching the first student-designed and built rocket into space. Tim has testified to the U.S. Senate on commercial space policy and is the youngest member on the National Space Council Users Advisory Group by nearly two decades, directly advising the United States White House on all space policy. He also serves on the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer, and has been honored as an MIT 35 Innovators Under 35 and “30 Under 30” from Business Insider, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine. Relativity is backed by Playground Global, Social Capital, Y Combinator, Mark Cuban, USC, and Stanford.