California company to build and test rockets in Mississippi

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) — A California rocket company says it will build and test rockets at a NASA facility in Mississippi.

Los Angeles-based Relativity announced Tuesday that it would invest $59 million, with a plan to increase to 200 workers from 90 current employees.

The company will lease space from NASA at Stennis Space Center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The facility has long hosted rocket tests.

State and local governments are likely to give Relativity more than $4.7 million in aid and tax breaks over the next 10 years as part of the deal.

Relativity plans to build rockets through three-dimensional metal printing, completing development by next year. Relativity hopes for an orbital test launch in 2020 and to begin commercial service in 2021, launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida.