According to TechCrunch, NASA has hired Relativity Space—backed by former Google chair Eric Schmidt—to build and launch a spacecraft to Mars. The mission, called Aeolus, will carry four instruments to measure dust, wind, and temperature in the Martian atmosphere on a daily basis, providing crucial data for future human exploration. Launch is scheduled for twenty twenty-eight. This would make it the first private mission to reach Mars, setting up a race with SpaceX. Relativity was founded by former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers and pioneered three-D-printed rockets, though its first design failed in twenty twenty-three. The deal mirrors NASA's earlier public-private partnerships, where the agency provides science and commercial companies provide low-cost infrastructure.

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