Firefly Aerospace – Page 2

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander arrives in lunar orbit

February 16, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

The robotic lander reached the Moon’s orbit after performing its 4 minute and 15 second Lunar Orbit Insertion burn, which began at 8:51 p.m. EST on Feb. 13 (0151 UTC on Feb. 14).

American, Japanese robotic landers share rocket launch to the Moon

January 15, 2025 Will Robinson-Smith

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander will deploy first and is designated as the primary payload and ispace’s Resilience lander will follow about 30 minutes after. Liftoff from pad 39A happened at 1:11 a.m. EST (0611 UTC).

Firefly Aerospace announces contract with L3Harris for up to 20 launches on Alpha rocket

August 7, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The deal comes roughly two months after Firefly inked a deal with Lockheed Martin for up to 25 launches in a similar timeframe. The first Alpha launches under this new contract would launch no earlier than 2027.

Firefly launches Alpha rocket on NASA mission

July 2, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

Launch of a collection of eight CubeSats as part of NASA’s ELaNA 43 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites 43) mission occurred at 9:04 p.m. PDT (12:04 a.m. EDT / 0404 UTC). Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

Firefly Aerospace doubles Texas footprint to support testing of Antares 330, MLV rocket

February 28, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

Firefly is working in partnership with Northrop Grumman on the rockets, which are expected to make their launch debuts in 2025. The infrastructure expansion in Briggs, Texas, boosts the company’s manufacturing space from 92,000 to 207,000 square feet.

Firefly Aerospace launches its 4th Alpha rocket

December 20, 2023 Will Robinson-Smith

Firefly Aerospace launched its Alpha rocket Friday after a launch attempt on Wednesday was scrubbed by bad weather. Liftoff with a payload for Lockheed Martin occurred at 9:32 a.m. PST (1932 UTC).

In parallel with rocket development, Firefly launches lunar lander initiative

April 1, 2020 Stephen Clark

A souped-up version of the Israeli Beresheet moon lander built in Texas could be ready to carry NASA science and technology payloads to the lunar surface before the end of 2022, according to officials from Firefly Aerospace.

Firefly confirms fire during first stage test

January 23, 2020 Stephen Clark

Firefly Aerospace confirmed a “test anomaly” resulted in a small fire on a vertical test stand in Central Texas Wednesday evening. The fire occurred during the first attempt at a full-scale qualification test-firing of a first stage for Firefly’s Alpha small satellite launcher.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, Firefly to collaborate on propulsion

October 28, 2019 Stephen Clark

Firefly Aerospace and Aerojet Rocketdyne have announced a strategic partnership to collaborate on rocket propulsion, an agreement that could lead to Firefly’s use of Aerojet’s AR1 engine in a new medium-lift launcher.

Firefly to build U.S. version of Israeli Beresheet lunar lander

July 10, 2019 Stephen Clark

Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company which is already developing a small satellite launcher, has signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries to build lunar landers in the United States and carry NASA science instruments to the moon, officials announced Tuesday.