firefly aerospace signs customer spaceflight for alpha rocket launch in 2021

The Texas-based private aerospace firm Firefly Aerospace is going to collaborate with Spaceflight Inc. on a rideshare mission on the Alpha small launch vehicle of Firefly as per an agreement announced on 22nd April. Spaceflight is going to provide most of the payloads for this vehicle. This vehicle is supposed to launch in 2021 or late this year from Vandenberg Airforce Base in California. This alpha rocket is able to place the 630kg satellite in the sun-synchronous orbit.

As per the agreement signed, Spaceflight will continue to supply payloads for future missions by Firefly. Firefly founder and chief executive said, "We expect a long-term relationship with Spaceflight. We consider them the preeminent aggregator of satellites in our payload class".

Firefly is going to work with other payload aggregators too. Firms like 'Innovative Solutions in Space' (Denmark) are going to have collaborated with Firefly in the near future. These collaborations will result in capturing the major share of the global rideshare market, says Brad Schneider, chief revenue officer of Firefly. He mentioned that there is a good balance between govt. and commercial business for Alpha.

Firefly is in the final stage of the development of Alpha. The first launch is supposed to be performed later this year. The company is planning to perform static-fire tests of the second stage in May as it is assembling the first flight vehicle. After passing those tests, the vehicles are going to be shipped to Vandenberg. A former Delta 2 pad of Space Launch Complex 2 West in Vandenberg is being prepared already. That pad is supposed to be modified within July for a "wet dress rehearsal", a practice countdown that involves fuelling the vehicle. However, the launch date is not fixed as it is the first mission and all the tests are yet to be passed and the bugs to be removed, system Markusic, CEO of Firefly. He said that it is going to be a demonstration mission, although some unnamed payloads of some customers are going to be carried. He added that a second Alpha rocket is in production concurrently with the first one.

Firefly has gone through several setbacks in Alpha development. In January, a fire broke out during qualification tests of the first stage, a misconfigured software led to this accident as the CEO says. The development has been going through all the restrictions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic. The company has split its operations into two shifts, it also has provided high-end laptops and upgraded networks for the use of telework. As per the CEO, the company is going with at least 90% of its capacity. The company is hiring employees at a rate of one person a day and expanding constantly.

The company has come up with new strategic partnerships considering the economic effects of the pandemic. They are looking forward to teaming up with their competitors for greater achievements for all.

Right now Firefly is a part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Firefly was one of an estimated 8 to 10 bidders for the latest CLPS task order, which NASA awarded to Masten space systems. Markusic said, "Firefly will take the feedback it did get on its proposal........and try to win again."

By,

    Anirban Das

KOLKATA, INDIA
ON BEHALF OF SPACE RENAISSANCE INDIAN CHAPTER