Firefly Aerospace is a Texas-based private aerospace company that provides end-to-end space transportation services. It specializes in the development of small to medium-lift launch vehicles like the Alpha rocket and lunar landers such as Blue Ghost, along with on-orbit services using its Elytra space tug. Firefly works with partners like NASA and ESA, securing contracts for commercial lunar payload services and missions to the far side of the Moon. The company aims to provide affordable and reliable space access for government and commercial customers, contributing to lunar and cislunar exploration.
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Firefly Aerospace conducted one Alpha launch 2024, a July mission for NASA that deployed eight cubesats.
Firefly Aerospace’s valuation increased from $1,500,000,000 in November 2023 to more than $2,000,000,000 after the Series D round.
Firefly Aerospace closed an oversubscribed $175,000,000 Series D financing round at a valuation of more than $2,000,000,000.
BlackSky, then part of Spaceflight Industries, created the LeoStella joint venture with Thales Alenia Space in 2018 as part of a $150,000,000 Series C round.
Firefly Aerospace provides launch, lunar, and on-orbit services including small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles that support missions from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon.
The first Firefly Alpha mission under the agreement will deploy True Anomaly’s Jackal Autonomous Orbital Vehicle for the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command’s VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space mission targeted for 2025.
Firefly Aerospace operates the Alpha launch vehicle and is developing the larger MLV rocket while also working on orbital transfer vehicles and lunar landers.
The 19 HALO pool members are Airbus U.S. Space & Defense (Arlington, Virginia); Apex Technology, Inc. (Culver City, California); AST Space Mobile USA LLC (Midland, Texas); Astro Digital, U.S. Inc. (San Jose, California); Capella Space Corp. (San Francisco); CesiumAstro Inc. (Austin, Texas); Firefly Aerospace, Inc. (Cedar Park, Texas); Geneva Technologies Inc. (Monument, Colorado); Impulse Space, Inc. (Redondo Beach, California); Kepler Communications U.S. Inc. (Wilmington, Delaware); Kuiper Government Solutions (KGS) LLC (Arlington, Virginia); LeoStella LLC (Tukwila, Washington); Momentus Space (San Jose, California); Muon Space, Inc. (Mountain View, California); NovaWurks Inc. (Los Alamitos, California); Space Exploration Technologies Corps. (SpaceX) (Hawthorne, California); Turion Space Corp. (Irvine, California); Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. (Irvine, California); and York Space Systems LLC (Denver).
Firefly Aerospace launched a Millennium Space satellite for the Victus Nox TacRS mission in September 2023.
Once the launch order is given, Firefly Aerospace must complete payload integration, rocket fueling, and launch operations within the compressed 24-hour timeframe.
True Anomaly will complete development and testing of its Jackal Autonomous Orbital Vehicle at its Denver facility before shipping the vehicle to Firefly Aerospace’s processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
On 2024-10-17, True Anomaly selected Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket to launch its Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle for a U.S. Space Force rapid-response demonstration mission.
The QuickSounder mission will launch from Firefly Aerospace’s SLC-2 launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
QuickSounder is scheduled to launch on Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket in 2026.
Brett Alexander, chief revenue officer at Firefly Aerospace, stated that there are no major concerns about the FAA's regulation implementation.
Task order CP-22 was the first landing mission selected by NASA under the CLPS program since March 2023, when NASA awarded a task order to Firefly Aerospace for a landing on the lunar farside.
Firefly Aerospace plans to land its Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Moon in 2024.
Firefly Aerospace and Millennium Space collaborated on the U.S. Space Force’s Victus Nox mission in 2023.
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for environmental testing ahead of a launch planned for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Jason Kim will become Chief Executive Officer of Firefly Aerospace effective 2024-10-01.