8:12 AM PDT · June 30, 2022 Relativity Space will be sending OneWeb’s second-gen broadband satellites to orbit starting in 2025 using its fully reusable 3D-printed rocket Terran R, under a new multi-launch agreement. This is the fifth customer for Terran R, and the only one that has been publicly named, bringing the total value of all binding launch agreements for that rocket to more than $1.2 billion. It’s a high degree of customer conviction in Relativity, which has yet to send even its first rocket, the small, fully expendable Terran, 1 to orbit. “To have such large contracts signed before launching, and before even launching Terran 1, I think is really speaking to the confidence that people have in the team and in our approach,” Relativity founder and CEO Tim Ellis told TechCrunch. While Relativity declined to share the financial terms of this specific deal, the company did confirm that the agreement is for a number of launches in the double-digits. Given that Relativity will be deploying OneWeb’s Gen 2 satellite network under a primary deployment contract — meaning this is what will get the Gen 2 network up for the first time — they’ll likely work fast. “We keep hearing from customers that there needs to be a second, quickly moving, disruptive launch company that has low prices, is reliable and is able to scale production quickly and actually serve what is now becoming an even more kind of supply-constrained market,” Ellis said. The road to launch To meet the 2025 deadline with OneWeb, Ellis said Relativity will likely conduct the first orbital flight test of Terran R around the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025. That means these launches for OneWeb will be some of the first Terran R conducts for commercial customers. OneWeb had to scramble to find alternate launch arrangements after it said it would no longer use Russia’s Soyuz rockets, a direct result of the series of sanctions imposed by much of the Western world after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The company quickly signed launch deals with SpaceX — a competitor — and New Space India. Those agreements will send OneWeb’s first generation satellites to orbit, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. But talks between OneWeb and Relativity preceded the war, Ellis said. Techcrunch event