(Bloomberg) -- Relativity Space Inc., a maker of 3D-printed rockets backed by billionaire Mark Cuban, has agreed to lease a space for a new headquarters in Southern California.
The startup plans to take over a 1 million-square-foot (93,000-square meter) factory in Long Beach for production of Terran R, its reusable, 216-foot (66-meter), 3D-printed rocket.
Over the past year, the closely held firm raised more than $1.1 billion in two funding rounds, one led by Tiger Global Management and the other by Fidelity Management & Research Co., according to Relativity Chief Executive Officer Tim Ellis.
“That capital is really what's fueling this,” Ellis said by phone. “In many ways, it's just a factory that hasn't existed before because no one's ever 3D-printed this much of an aerospace product at scale.”
The property, owned by Goodman Group, is among the largest industrial sites in the Los Angeles area. The 93-acre (38-hectare) Goodman Commerce Center Long Beach was once home to the Boeing C-17 manufacturing plant.
Relativity -- with a workforce that has quadrupled in the past year to 400 -- has staff in other locations, including Seattle and Washington, D.C. The firm plans to hire an additional 200 employees by the year's end.
The new factory will be able to house more than 2,000 employees, a metallurgical laboratory and dozens of the firm's Stargate printers, the largest metal 3D printers in the world. Relativity plans to move in early next year.
Its current 120,000-square-foot Long Beach factory, at 3500 E. Burnett St., will remain in use for Terran 1 production.
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