Posted: Sat, Jun 20, 2026, 10:12 AM ET (1412 GMT)
Relativity Space announced Wednesday plans to launch a Mars orbiter mission in 2028 whose payload includes a NASA instrument suite. The company rolled out its Interplanetary Sciences Program, which it described as an effort to enable low-cost space science missions. The first of those missions will be a Mars orbiter with a radar instrument for studying subsurface ice and geology as well as Aeolus, a set of instruments provided by NASA's Ames Research Center for monitoring the planet's atmosphere. The spacecraft will also serve as a communications relay. Relativity did not provide technical details about the spacecraft, which will launch on the company's Terran R rocket that is still in development.

Related Links:

•  SpaceNews article
•  TechCrunch article
•  Scientific American article
•  NASA press release