NASA Bets on Eric Schmidt's Unproven Rocket Company to Reach Mars Before SpaceX

An Unlikely Contender Enters the Mars Race

Relativity Space — a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year after stumbling on the path to orbit — might just beat SpaceX to Mars. It sounds improbable. But on Tuesday, June 17, NASA made it official, handing Relativity a contract that puts it squarely in the center of one of the most consequential races in modern space exploration.

NASA said it hired the company to build a spacecraft to house a suite of scientific instruments, launch it into space, and fly it to Mars. The structure of the contract is similar to the deals NASA made with SpaceX to fly cargo to the International Space Station, or Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the Moon — the government agency handles the science, while the private company provides low-cost infrastructure.

What the Aeolus Mission Will Actually Do

The mission, dubbed Aeolus, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, wind, and temperature in its atmosphere. That kind of consistent atmospheric data has never existed for Mars before. The agency said that data will make it safer for landers and, someday, astronauts to visit the surface of the Red Planet.

The mission is set to launch in 2028 — a rapid pace that will require Relativity to design and build the spacecraft to carry the Aeolus instruments, and finish building the rocket that will carry it to space, all on a tight timeline. Under this model, the company working with NASA takes on some of the development cost of the project, in exchange for allowing NASA to stretch its budget further — a structure that has become a template for how the agency funds ambitious missions without bearing all the financial risk itself.

A Company With a Lot Left to Prove

Relativity has never reached orbit. The company was founded in 2015 by two former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers around the idea of 3D-printing rockets. Its first vehicle, Terran-1, failed mid-flight in 2023. It pivoted to a bigger rocket, the Terran R, then ran low on money — that's when Schmidt stepped in, taking a majority stake in 2025 and installing himself as chief executive.

The Terran R has not yet flown, and Relativity has not disclosed the spacecraft details for Aeolus. NASA is candid that this carries risk, as commercial partnerships do — some of the agency's startup partners have gone bankrupt, while others have put landers on the Moon at an angle. Still, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is leaning into the approach. "By pairing NASA's world-class instruments with commercial innovation and investment, we can deliver more science, more often," he said.

Schmidt vs. Musk — A Rivalry Beyond Rockets

Schmidt and Elon Musk, who has spent years promising to colonize Mars, are regular sparring partners over AI safety — and for all his talk, Musk's SpaceX has never actually sent its own mission to the Red Planet. If Relativity launches Aeolus on schedule — a big "if" — it could be the first private mission to reach Mars, meaning Schmidt, not Musk, would get there first. That is a lot of conditions stacked on a rocket that still has to prove it can leave the ground.

To its credit, Relativity says all of the mission's scientific data, algorithms, and automation learnings will be released to the world. That kind of open-science commitment, paired with NASA's institutional backing, gives the mission credibility beyond the corporate rivalry. Whether Relativity can actually deliver — building an unflown rocket and an interplanetary spacecraft in roughly two years — is the defining question. The answer will say as much about the future of commercial space exploration as it does about who wins the race to Mars.