In a recent turn of events for the California-based space company, Relativity Space, Eric Schmidt steps up to take control of the affairs of the company. This was reported on 10 March 2025 following an official address from the former Google CEO to his new staff at the space start-up.
Eric Schmidt Joins The Space Race
Between 2001 and 2011 Eric Schmidt occupied the office of CEO at Google, helping to guide the firm’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In 2011, he left the technology giant in the firm hands of Larry Page and went silent in the technology industry up until 10 March 2025.
According to the New York Times, the former CEO of Google has invested a large sum of money in Relativity Space and is now taking charge of the company. He will be replacing Timothy Ellis, the current chief and co-founder at Relativity Space, putting him in charge of the most important decision-making processes.
While Eric Schmidt might not be a space guru or headed any space firm, he has good leadership skills that were put to use during his time at Google.
These skills might be important to Relativity Space if they really want to compete with giants like Blue Origin and SpaceX in the US. Over the past few years, Relativity Space has been on a rocky path regarding its space business as its Terran 1 rocket failed back in 2023.
Following this failure, Relativity Space has turned its attention to the development of another rocket model, the Terran R. This rocket plans to launch in 2026 and will compete against the Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX.
What Does The Future Hold For Relativity Space Under Eric Schmidt
Taking to his X page, Timothy Ellis proudly announced that Eric Schmidt will be taking over from him as the CEO of Relativity Space. In his post, he expresses confidence that “there’s no one more tenacious or passionate to propel this dream forward.”
What dream, you may ask, the dream of making Relativity Space a force to reckon with in the space industry? In the same post, he points out that the hardware for the Terran R rocket is currently in the development stage.
This resounds the start-up’s desire to launch this rocket into space by 2026. While this won’t be an easy task, new leadership under Eric Schmidt might make it a success.
Over the coming months, we’ll keep an eye out for changes that the new Relativity Space leadership will bring to the space start-up. These changes will shape the future of the firm and determine if it will be on the front line of human exploration in space.
Required fields are marked *