NASA extends its commercial partnerships to Mars

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

Recently, NASA extended the idea of private-public partnerships to Mars. The space agency has struck a deal with Relativity Space to send an orbital probe to the Red Planet, with a launch date no earlier than 2028.

The probe is named Aeolus, named after the divine keeper of the winds in Greek mythology. In keeping with that name, NASA is providing four instruments for the probe that will send “the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds.” The understanding derived about weather on Mars will be of great help to future crewed missions.

In addition to the NASA goals, Aeolus will examine shallow ice and geology just below the Martian surface. In return, Relativity Space will provide the probe and the launch vehicle and will solicit other instruments from the commercial sector, academia and philanthropic organizations.

Relativity Space was founded in 2015 in order to develop reusable rockets. It started with small lift rockets and added medium to heavy lift to compete with companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab for the launch market. Its first rocket was the Terran 1, which achieved orbit in March 2023, but suffered an anomaly with the third stage.

The company has since retired the Terran 1 in favor of developing the larger Terran R launch vehicle. The rocket, capable of launching 23,500 kilograms to low Earth orbit, is scheduled for its first launch later this year. The company envisions Terran R to be the launch vehicle for the Aeolus probe.

Aeolus is the first mission under Relativity’s Interplanetary Sciences Program. The idea is to send its own “deep space science missions throughout the solar system” at what it calls “more science per dollar.“ The company intends to “Develop and fly foundational technologies and payloads to advance high-priority research goals.”

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been CEO of Relativity since March 2025. Schmidt has acquired controlling interest in the company and is said to be providing much of its financing. Schmidt has financed out of his own pocket a number of observatories, including a space telescope dubbed Lazuli, designed to be a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope.

The idea of private-public partnerships driving space exploration is nothing new. The George W. Bush administration started putting the concept into action after the Columbia disaster when it started to privatize the transportation of cargo and then of astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The Obama administration continued the program and went all in on it when it decided to cancel the Constellation deep space exploration program started by Bush.

The first Trump administration expanded the private-public partnership concept when it revived deep space exploration with the Artemis program. The Human Landing System, which will take astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in decades, is being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.

The Commercial Lunar Payload Services program has had uneven success, with only one uncrewed lunar lander, the Blue Ghost provided by Firefly Aerospace, the only one that has been entirely successful so far. Nevertheless, NASA has incorporated the program in its Moon Base missions.

The NASA-Relativity Space partnership is a test to ascertain whether at least some planetary science missions can be conducted using the same model. If Aeolus succeeds, then look for more missions like it from a variety of companies.

Aeolus becomes more important because the Trump administration, while going all in on Artemis, is interested in cutting back on planetary and Earth science. The proposed budget reductions have given the scientific community heartburn. It has reignited, to a certain extent, the human space exploration versus robotic space exploration debate. Aeolus is an attempt to squeeze more science from limited dollars.

The partnership with Relativity Space is a bold move, considering that the Terran R has yet to fly, But, if the deal comes together and the launch vehicle becomes operational, two things happen.

First, the era of commercial planetary science dawns. It likely won’t cover big, flagship missions such as Europa Orbiter or Titan Dragonfly. But a lot of smaller science missions will fly.

Second, if Terran R becomes operational, it should garner a lot of launch contracts. Thus, Relativity Space will join Blue Origin and Rocket Lab as competitors to SpaceX, the space company that currently bestrides the universe like a colossus. As great as SpaceX is, it could use the competition.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.