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Antenna

Space · Long Beach, CA · Founded 2015 · Raised $1.3B · Growth stage

Relativity Space

Builds reusable rockets that make access to space more reliable and routine—empowering science, exploration, and innovation beyond our planet

Review noteWikipedia: founded 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone, headquartered in Long Beach; $1.335B raised as of June 2021 (including a $500M Series D in November 2020 and $650M in June 2021 led by Fidelity); Eric Schmidt became CEO in March 2025 and took a controlling interest. Source ↗

Edge

17#105 · ▲201 in 7d

3 of 8 families

Why now

  1. Applied for FCC special temporary authority to test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, starting Dec 1

    Regulatory · Oct 16

  2. 129 of 369 open roles posted in the last 30 days, against 67 in the 30 days before

    Hiring · Oct 16

  3. Email runs on Microsoft 365 GCC High or DoD (MX at office365.us), a US government cloud for controlled data

    Traffic · Undated

People

Score

Momentum51

 

Regulatory, hiring, traffic

Thesis fit94

× 0.96

Matched on dod, factory, in-space, launch vehicle, low earth orbit

Earliness0

× 0.40

Already visible: capital raised, headcount

Team–

× 0.85

2 named people, none from a top lab or company

51 × 0.96 × 0.40 × 0.85 = 17

Edge, 12 weeks

Signals

  1. Oct 16RegulatoryApplied for FCC special temporary authority to test at Cape Canaveral, Florida, starting Dec 1↗
  2. Oct 16Hiring129 of 369 open roles posted in the last 30 days, against 67 in the 30 days before↗
  3. Sep 1HiringWho is hiring post on Hacker News, for Software Engineer (all levels); 9 earlier threads since May 2018↗

Undated

  1. TrafficEmail runs on Microsoft 365 GCC High or DoD (MX at office365.us), a US government cloud for controlled data↗
  2. TrafficDNS records name 5 vendor tools: Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Greenhouse, Smartsheet Gov and Rippling↗
  3. AttentionMentioned 137 times on Hacker News to date↗
  4. TrafficDomain rank improved from 406,152 to 380,416 in 30 days, within the normal range↗