96 Time November 25, 2019
FAST FACTS
HOMETOWN
RICHMOND, CALIF.
BEST KNOWN FOR
BECOMING THE
YOUNGEST-EVER U.S.
FIGURE-SKATING
NATIONAL CHAMPION
AT AGE 13—AND
THE FIRST FEMALE
U.S. SKATER TO
LAND A QUAD LUTZ
IN COMPETITION
RETHINKING ROCKETS
TIM ELLIS | 29
By Terry Virts
There was a day when space
was the domain of governments:
NASA, the Soviet Union, the
European Space Agency. It
required billions of dollars and
tens of thousands of workers to
earn a seat at the space table.
But this is the 21st century,
and times have changed.
Tim Ellis, CEO of Relativity
Space, is the embodiment of
the “new space” era we now
live in. He began his college
career studying film, but soon
switched his major to aerospace
engineering and joined the USC
Rocket Propulsion Laboratory.
After cutting his teeth at Jeff
Bezos’ Blue Origin, he set out to
change the world and co-founded
Relativity Space, a company
with the audacious mission
of 3-D-printing rockets. After
landing a $500,000 investment
from the celebrity investor Mark
Cuban, Relativity has raised
nearly $200 million in a few short
years and is poised to begin
commercial launches in 2021.
Virts is a former NASA astronaut