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Firefly - Alpha + Beta SLVs

Firefly is developing a family of launch and in-space vehicles and services that provide industry-leading affordability, convenience, and reliability. Firefly’s launch vehicles utilize common technologies, manufacturing infrastructure and launch capabilities, providing LEO launch solutions for up to ten metric tons of payload at the lowest cost per kg in the small-launch class. Combined with Firefly’s in-space vehicles, such as the Space Utility Vehicle and Blue Ghost Lunar Lander, Firefly provides the space industry with a single source for missions from LEO to the surface of the Moon or beyond.

Firefly is headquartered in Cedar Park, TX. A mass production facility at nearby Exploration Park will allow Firefly to build 24 Alpha vehicles every year. Firefly is unique in that it not only builds and operates spaceflight vehicles, such as its Alpha rocket, but will also become a premier sourcing partner for other New Space companies to procure the components that are used in those vehicles, helping to lower the barrier to entry in the New Space market. Through the manufacture of their own vehicles, Firefly will establish flight heritage for all components before supplying them to other companies.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc., an end-to-end space transportation company, announced 25 January 2024 it was selected by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to serve as a launch provider with Firefly’s Alpha rocket. As part of the NRO’s Streamlined Launch Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Contract (SLIC), the agreement has a 10-year ordering period with a ceiling value of $700 million across all firm fixed-price task orders.

“Firefly is ready to support the NRO’s responsive space needs as we continue to advance our rapid launch operations capability,” said Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “In order to support the increased demand for Alpha launches, we’ve doubled the size of our facilities, implemented automated carbon composite technologies, and fine-tuned our operations to rapidly produce, test, and launch in response to our customers’ urgent mission needs.”

The SLIC program was established by the NRO’s Office of Space Launch to leverage commercial best practices for responsive space missions and encourage competition among emerging launch providers. SLIC is open to U.S. launch vehicles with a proven orbital record and allows providers to bid dedicated, rideshare, or multi-manifest launch services.

As a SLIC provider, Firefly is able to compete for NRO launches with its Alpha rocket, capable of lifting more than 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit from the Vandenberg Space Force Base and the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Firefly minimizes launch costs and increases reliability and responsiveness by utilizing robust in-house manufacturing capabilities, sharing components across its vehicles, and leveraging innovative technologies, such as carbon composite sandwich structures and patented tap-off cycle propulsion systems.

While he was working at Virgin Galactic, leading development of the company’s LauncherOne booster, Tom Markusic approached Michael Blum and P.J.King in 2013 about starting up his own rocket company. Together they founded Firefly in 2014. Blum and King invested $225,300 and $975,300 in the company, respectively.

By one account, Firefly's problems began when a fund-raising round fell through after Brexit forced a major European investor out of the nascent firm. But sources confirmed to Parabolic Arc that the equity investor was Paul Allen’s Vulcan Aerospace. Vulcan owned Stratolaunch, which was developing an enormous aircraft to place satellites into orbit using air-launched rockets. Stratolaunch had been providing funding to Firefly with the goal of using Alpha rockets to launch satellites.

The company also faced complaints from Virgin Galactic that Markusic stole proprietary information when he worked for Virgin. As a result of the Virgin Galactic lawsuit and the company’s other financial challenges, Firefly was unable to raise additional equity capital from new investors. This lawsuit was eventually settled with the stipulation that Markusic not pursue aerospike engine technology that Virgin Galactic claimed Markusic had taken with him when he left the company. That left Firefly with few choices but to furlough most of its 150 staff in October 2016.

Ukrainian billionaire Maxym Polyakov was co-founder of the publicly traded, U.K.-based online dating company Cupid plc — once a darling of the British tech sector. Polyakov owned and operated a ring of dozens of offshore adult dating and entertainment websites, with names like “BuddyGays,” “MyLustyWish,” “WantMatures,” “Loveaholics,” “SpicyDesires,” and “AffairDating”, which frequently changed names under various holding companies. The websites were filled with seemingly fake profiles, some of which used stolen photos of models. Users are bombarded with messages attempting to convert its free accounts into paid subscriptions — ones that are hard to cancel. Cupid eventually shut down in 2014, and according to Snopes, “sold its myriad dating websites to several offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Malta.” Snopes says Polyakov was behind those offshore companies, and therefore retained his interest in them as he “moved to Silicon Valley and branded himself a player in the intersecting worlds of venture capital and aerospace tech” in 2016.

Polyakov became interested in investing in Firefly in November 2016, and began buying up Firefly’s secured debt in February 2017 through one of Noosphere’s fully-owned subsidiary, EOS Launcher. Firefly Space Systems filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2017. After going bankrupt and being liquidated, the company was re-created as Firefly Aerospace by Polyakov’s investment company, Noosphere Ventures, which bought out the assets of former Firefly Space Systems.

A group of original shareholders in the defunct Firefly Space Systems accused co-founder Tom Markusic of fraudulently conspiring with Polyakov to force the rocket company into bankruptcy in 2017 and reconstitute it under a nearly identical name without giving them any stake in the new venture.

Firefly Aerospace Inc. announced 05 May 2021 the successful completion of its Series A financing. The $75 million Series A, which valued the company at greater than $1 billion, was led by DADA Holdings, with participation by Astera Institute, Canon Ball LLC, Reuben Brothers Limited, SMS Capital Investment LLC, Raven One Ventures, The XBTO Ventures and other investors. Following the forthcoming launch of its flagship Alpha small launch vehicle, Firefly intended to raise an additional $300 million later in 2021 to fund its ambitious growth plans through 2025.

Firefly is developing the Alpha rocket powered by Reaver engines to launch payloads, including satellites, of up to 1,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. The 29 meters tall Alpha will launch from a Firefly pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The company is also working on the design of the Beta rocket, aiming to deliver up to 4,400 kg to low Earth orbit. Firefly was aiming for a debut launch of the Alpha booster by April 2020, with a second flight to follow in June 2020, however these plans were postponed.

Firefly Alpha is designed to address the needs of the burgeoning small–satellite market. At a dedicated mission price of $15M, Alpha combines the highest payload performance with the lowest cost per kilogram to orbit in its vehicle class. Capable of delivering 1 metric ton to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and 630 kg to the highly desirable 500 km Sun–Synchronous Orbit (SSO), Alpha will provide launch options for both full vehicle and ride share customers. Alpha will launch twice per month, a launch cadence that will enable customers to fly according to their schedule and to the orbit they desire.

Alpha utilizes well established propulsion technology. Both stages use common designs: copper regen-cooled LOx/RP-1 thrust chambers, a simple tap-off cycle which drives single shaft turbopumps, nozzle-mounted turbine exhaust manifolds, and hydraulic actuators. Innovations in Firefly engines include our simple “Crossfire” injector, tap-off geometry, dual-mounted electrically actuated, trimmable propellant main valves, and ultra-compact horizontal turbopump mounting. The upper stage engine, “Lightning,” includes a turbine-exhaust cooled refractory metal high area ratio nozzle extension. The first stage “Reaver” engines feature simple single axis gimballing. Consistent with the overall Alpha vehicle design, cost and performance are traded and optimized in Lightning and Reaver components to provide the best payload performance value.

Firefly utilizes advanced carbon-fiber composites for the entire airframe of Alpha, including the state-of-the-art, linerless, cryogenic propellant tanks. Composite materials are ideally suited to launch vehicle structures due to their high strength, low density and tailorable material properties. This allows Firefly Alpha to lift heavier payloads than a similar metal rocket.

Firefly Avionics hardware utilizes a combination of custom designed state-of-the-art and Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) components. Data Acquisition is accomplished using a rugged, modular Data Acquisition Chassis, which provides analog to digital conversion of all sensor data, and further packages the data and transmits to the Flight Computer via an onboard Ethernet network. The Flight Computer incorporates all vehicle telemetry and transmits data along with video to various Earth ground stations along the flight trajectory, for the duration of the flight.

On 22 January 2020 Firefly attempted to hotfire test the Alpha first stage for the first time. Unfortunately, after the four Reaver engines ignited, an engine bay fire developed. The rocket engine erupted in flames during a "hot-fire" test of Firefly's Alpha rocket, a booster designed for small satellite launches, on the proving grounds in Briggs, Texas. In the video, the fire is clearly visible on the left side, emerging from the engine at the moment of launch. The system immediately shut itself down and the fire was quickly extinguished by automatic ground fire suppression systems.

"At 6:23 pm local time, the stage's engines were fired, and a fire broke out in the engine bay at the base of the rocket's stage," Firefly representatives wrote in a statement. "The 5-second test was immediately aborted and the test facility’s fire suppression system extinguished the fire." No Firefly employee or members of the public were injured by the fire, according to the company’s statement. Both the Alpha rocket stage and the test stand also remained intact.

Space company Firefly on 01 September 2021 launched its Alpha rocket for the first time. However, minutes after lift-off the vehicle exploded in the sky above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The rocket was supposed to carry more than 90kg of payload to an orbit 300km above the Earth. The explosion led to the end of Firefly's Dedicated Research and Education Accelerator Mission (DREAM). The company issued a statement shortly after the explosion and said that the "ground staff had cleared the pad and surrounding areas to minimise risk and in adherence with safety protocols".

Firefly Beta is an evolutionary design based on Firefly Alpha technology. Beta is a 2-stage launch vehicle capable of delivering 8,000 kg to a 200 km (125 mile) Low Earth Orbit and has the capability of achieving Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits. The Beta vehicle utilizes technologies such as all carbon composite tanks, heritage LOx/RP-1 liquid fueled engines and builds on other elements of the existing Alpha architecture. Firefly claims that Beta will have lowest cost per kg to orbit of all launch vehicles in the 8,000 kg and under class.

Firefly’s next Alpha launch for NASA is on track for early 2024. The company will also support a responsive on-orbit mission for the NRO onboard Firefly’s Elytra vehicle in 2024.