Firefly’s Space Force launch represents key moment

The view from the upper stage of Firefly’s Alpha rocket after deploying the Victus Nox satellite in orbit on Sept. 14, 2023.

Firefly Aerospace

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Overview: Firefly lights up

Social media lit up Thursday evening with imagery of an object tearing through the dusk California sky. A rocket, seemingly unannounced, had launched and was putting on a show as it headed for space.

But a few space insiders knew what was up: Firefly’s Alpha rocket, carrying the Space Force’s ambitious Victus Nox mission with a satellite built by Millennium. For those in the know, the question wasn’t, “What’s happening here?” but instead, “Did it work?” 

The trio of space organizations was targeting a seemingly absurd 24-hour launch timeline per the Space Force’s rapid response goals. And Firefly had the most at stake in the practice run, for two important reasons. 

First, this was the third Alpha rocket that Firefly’s launched. The inaugural mission was quite spectacular, although unsuccessful. The second nearly made its destination, but the orbit it reached wasn’t quite right. While not a demo, Victus Nox felt like that “third time’s the charm” moment to prove they can do this launch thing from start to finish.

Second, Victus Nox was no ordinary mission. Earlier this summer I took a deep dive into the stakes and what the Space Safari group wanted to do: Demonstrate private companies, satellite and rocket builders alike, can meet timelines as speedy as 24 hours. The previous record for a “Tactical Responsive Space” (TacRS) mission? Not measured in hours, but 21 days.

Firefly shattered that prior record, completing all launch prep in 24 hours and launching at the first available window. With Space Force’s lucrative NSSL Phase 3 bidding process a fast-approaching glimmer on the horizon, I caught up with Firefly CEO Bill Weber to unpack the vibe at their Texas headquarters.

“If you could walk around Firefly this morning, I think they want to hand-carry the rocket out to Vandenberg and go again,” Weber said. “The energy couldn’t be higher right now in the company.”

Weber put the mission’s significance simply: “You cannot understate the credibility and the confidence that completing this mission – and all that it asked of Firefly – did with the customer.”

That customer, the deep-pocketed Pentagon, is about to spend big on rocket launches through a program known as “NSSL Phase 3,” and Firefly wants in on that. The company’s working with Northrop Grumman on a larger rocket – for now known as the MLV, or medium launch vehicle. Weber declared MLV is “designed for” the NSSL competition’s newly-created “Lane 1.” And, more importantly, Weber said his company is on schedule to ship its contribution for MLV to Northrop by the end of 2024. In full, the companies want to launch the inaugural MLV in about two years, to earn the military’s qualification “in the earliest window that we can possibly on ramp to Lane 1.”

“What we just did with Alpha proves that we will sign up to really audacious goals and we’ll meet ’em,” Weber said. 

“Unlike a lot of the competitors that are trying to bring medium launch vehicles to life, this is not new engineering for us. This is a larger, scaled up version of the same rocket that just flew … [that] brings our timeframes to production down and shortens that gap [to launching MLV].”

What’s up

  • SpaceX countersues DOJ in hiring discrimination case, with the company aiming to stop the lawsuit on constitutional grounds. – CNBC
  • Washington startup Stoke launches and lands reusable prototype vehicle in short flight test, with the company flying the rocket-powered “Hopper2” for 15 seconds to a maximum altitude of 30 feet. – Stoke
  • Senators ask Pentagon for clarity on Starlink’s use in Ukraine, with a trio of members of the Committee on Armed Services asking U.S. military leaders whether Elon Musk “directed the unilateral disabling or impediment of function of Starlink satellite communications terminals used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in southern Ukraine in 2022,” or ever had the authority to do so. – CNBC
  • Advent reorganizes Maxar into two businesses, splitting it into a “Maxar Intelligence” company of its imagery and data products under interim CEO Dan Jablonsky and a “Maxar Space Infrastructure” company that will oversee its manufacturing under CEO Chris Johnson. Jablonsky had been the CEO of Maxar since 2019. – SpaceNews
  • Sierra Space completed its 5th burst test of a sub-scale LIFE habitat, which included a “blanking plate” that acts as an engineering proxy for a window. – Sierra
  • AST SpaceMobile claims success in 5G satellite test, saying it demonstrated “the first-ever 5G cellular connectivity from space directly to normal mobile phones.” – AST
  • FAA proposes 25-year rocket orbital debris removal rule, with the regulator seeking to require companies remove any launch-related parts, primarily in an effort to responsibly dispose of rockets’ upper stages. – FAA

Industry maneuvers

Market movers

Boldly going

On the horizon

  • Sep. 23: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from Florida.
  • Sep. 24: NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample return mission lands capsule in Utah.
  • Sep. 25: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from California.
  • Sept. 28: ispace hosts grand opening of U.S. headquarters in Denver with updates about its “Series 2” lunar lander.

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