Firefly Aerospace is embracing the pioneering and can-do attitude of the frontier in the middle of Texas ranch country.
In order to support its “launch, land, orbit” ambitions, the business expanded its rocket production facility from 92,000 to 207,000 square feet, and yesterday it hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate this accomplishment. Over the course of the next 24 months, Firefly—best known for its Alpha rocket—plans to unveil three next-generation vehicles that will address the three aspects of space travel.
On Wednesday, Payload was given a sneak tour at the new location, where Firefly’s future was clearly visible.
The company’s next-generation Miranda engine was being fine-tuned by engineers in one facility. The new Medium Launch Vehicle/Antares 330 rocket was under construction, as could be seen after a short stroll to the adjacent building. Close by, engineers were working on the Elytra spacecraft, and further out, they were completing the Blue Ghost lunar lander.
It is not an easy undertaking to construct three new vehicles at the same time, especially when the business is intent on launching its Alpha rocket four times this year and six to eight times in 2025. That’s the rocket ranch method, though.
The Medium Launch Vehicle, Antares 330
In 2022, Northrop Grumman and Firefly partnered to jointly build the Antares 330 vehicle, which is set to replace the Russian-powered Antares 230 rocket. Northrop will provide the upper stage and avionics, while Firefly is building the first stage, which includes seven Miranda engines. The Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV) rocket, which is being co-developed, will also employ the first stage.
“One of the monumental things that changed the trajectory of this company was this partnership,” Firefly chief Bill Weber said at yesterday’s ceremony. “We said let’s take the very best of mature space and harness that with the innovation of new space.”
The new rocket’s development is proceeding quickly, and it is scheduled to make its first flight in 2025.
- The car will have the capacity to lift 16,000 kg to low Earth orbit.
- In order to construct the larger launcher, Firefly is scaling up the Alpha design.
- In little more than a year, Firefly constructed their Miranda engine, which has 230,000 pounds of thrust, and finished a hot-fire test in late 2023.
Reusability: Firefly intends to integrate first-stage reusability into its MLV in the future. Adam Oakes, vice president of launch vehicles at Firefly, remarked, “Anyone who comes into this market and doesn’t have reusability on their roadmap is a doomed program.” But rather of overpromising and underdelivering, the corporation chooses to show off an MVP disposable product before designing the vehicle for reusability.
Blue Ghost Lunar Lander
With NASA CLPS contracts worth over $230 million, Firefly will construct two Blue Ghost landers to deliver payloads to the moon. Blue Ghost 1, which is expected to launch this year, was undergoing final preparations at the Firefly site. Engineers from Honeybee Robotics were attaching their payload to the vehicle.
Firefly is trying to avoid making the same mistakes as Peregrine 1 and IM-1, which have already made their CLPS-backed lunar flights this year with varying degrees of success. This entails reviewing comparable instruments one more time and making any necessary system adjustments. The business will also spend some time in an extremely elliptical Earth orbit after launch to test its technologies and iron out any faults before moving on to the Moon.