Firefly Aerospace

Firefly is an American end-to-end space transportation company committed to providing economical and convenient access to space for small payloads through the design, manufacture, and operation of reliable launch and spacecraft vehicles.

Created: 2019-01-22

Updated: 2023-03-05

Company - Firefly Aerospace

Founded
Country: 2014; USA

Funding: $271M+

Website: Firefly Aerospace

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Product/Service - Blue Ghost

Classification: Cargo Transportation & Landers

Category: Commercial Lunar Lander
Transport Service (LEO-Moon)
Commercial Lander

Fields: Moon

Status: Development

First launch: 2024

Blue Ghost

Our first Blue Ghost mission was awarded by NASA as part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative and will deliver a suite of 10 NASA-sponsored payloads, as well as other commercial payloads, to the lunar surface in 2024. The initial award was over $93 million dollars. These payloads will operate using lander-provided data and power resources through transit to the Moon, for an entire lunar day, and into the lunar night in Mare Crisium. This exciting mission will support scientific lunar research and will contribute to developing a sustainable presence on the Moon.
As the most powerful platform in its class, Blue Ghost will fly yearly lunar surface missions to diverse locations including the lunar poles and far side.

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Product/Service - SUV (Space Utility Vehicle)

Classification: In-Space Transportation

Category: Space Tug
Transport Service (LEO-GEO)
Orbital Transportation

Fields: Transport Service (In-Space)

Status: Development

First launch: Not announced

Space Utility Vehicle (SUV)

Firefly’s Space Utility Vehicle (SUV) takes your payload to orbits a small launch vehicle could never access before. By means of the in-space propulsive third stage, uplink/downlink services, and up to 2 kW of solar power, SUV is capable of satisfying a wide variety of mission architectures that last up to 5 years.

Firefly Research has been selected to receive a NASA contract to support development of a revolutionary new spacecraft called the Space Utility Vehicle (SUV). The SUV provides the in-space bridge between Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle and its Blue Ghost lunar lander, allowing Firefly to provide the only complete end-to-end space transportation solution in the industry.

Firefly Research, LLC (FFR) is pleased to propose to NASA the development of a Space Utility Vehicle (SUV) to a CDR level of fidelity. This vehicle serves as a solar electric transfer stage, offering enough Delta-V to transfer more than 500 kg of payload from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Low Lunar Orbit (LLO) after launch on a small lift launch vehicle. While most technologies needed for such a transfer stage are reasonably mature, the SUV is innovative in how the vehicle architecture breaks the long-held assumptions of Electric Propulsion (EP) being either slow or expensive.

We are able to offer a high-power platform with rapid transit capability at a competitive cost through refueling and reuse of that platform, amortizing platform cost over multiple missions. In this section, we explain the details of this architecture, the roadmap to a commercially viable SUV including developments already underway, and the specific aspects that will benefit from SBIR funding.

Created: 2023-03-05

Updated: 2023-03-05

Link

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title	Type	Date	Summary
NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023	News	2021-02-04	NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace approximately $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023.
Mission possible – Staying on the Moo	Article	2022-10-13

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