Relativity Space, a California-based company pushing hard toward the inaugural flight of its Terran 1 rocket by the end of 2021, has hired a senior launch official from SpaceX. Zach Dunn, formerly senior vice president of production and launch at SpaceX, will become vice president of factory development at Relativity.
In joining Relativity, Dunn will work for a company that seeks to build a rocket made almost entirely of 3D-printed parts. And if that goal were not fantastical enough, Relativity also plans to automate as much of the rocket assembly and test process as possible. That is what Dunn was hired for.
The well-capitalized startup recently announced plans to build a large 3D-printing factory in Long Beach, California. Relativity intends to start with rockets, but it also has plans to additively manufacture large objects for other industries. Dunn’s first job will be to oversee the development of this facility, said Tim Ellis, co-founder of Relativity. “We really are looking to develop the factory of the future, as its own product,” Ellis said.
With this 3D-printing facility, Relativity will attempt to print rockets with 100 times fewer parts than most rockets, all without traditional tooling. In addition to mastering additive manufacturing, the facility will likely have radically different supply chains, inventory management, software and data management, and more. Dunn has, over his career, managed most aspects of the Falcon 9 rocket’s production, so he has a good understanding of how a rocket factory works.
“He really has worn quite a lot of hats,” Ellis said of Dunn. “That’s what drew me to him. He’s got a lot of passion and has demonstrated an incredible amount of leadership and creativity in solving some of the hardest problems at SpaceX.”
Dunn missed out on the formative years of the company founded in 2002, but he hired on at SpaceX straight out of graduate school in July 2007. Within months, Dunn was promoted to serve as the “responsible engineer” for the Falcon 1 rocket’s first stage and Merlin engine for both the third and fourth flights of that booster. When it was undergoing a rapid depressurization during a transport flight over the Pacific Ocean in September 2008, Dunn played a pivotal role in saving the first stage of what would become the first Falcon 1 rocket to reach orbit.