NASA picks Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for Mars mission, setting up a race with SpaceX

NASA picks Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for Mars mission, setting up a race with SpaceX TechCrunch NASA Announces Public-Private Partnership to Advance Mars Science NASA (.gov) Relativity Space to privately develop Mars orbiter mission SpaceNews In June 2026, Relativity Space — the rocket company Eric Schmidt took over in 2025, whose one rocket has never reached orbit — said it would privately build and fly a Mars orbiter in 2028, carrying NASA's Aeolus atmospheric instruments and doubling as a c Space Daily Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Relativity Space selected for upcoming NASA Mars orbiter mission Scientific American