Firefly Aerospace launches NASA-sponsored cubesats

TOKYO — Firefly Aerospace positioned eight cubesats into orbit on a mission funded by NASA on the primary flight of the corporate’s Alpha rocket since an higher stage malfunction greater than half a 12 months in the past.

The Alpha rocket lifted off from a foggy Vandenberg Area Power Base in California at 12:04 a.m. Jap July 4. A launch try July 2 was scrubbed after a floor gear problem halted the countdown simply earlier than ignition of the rocket’s first stage engines.

The rocket began deploying its payload of eight cubesats about 35 minutes after the higher stage shut down, a course of anticipated to final about 11 minutes based on a timeline supplied by Firefly. The orbit was a low Earth orbit, however Firefly didn’t disclose the particular goal orbit for the mission earlier than the launch.

“After anticipated deployment, @NASA’s CubeSat groups at the moment are awaiting acquisition of sign,” the corporate posted on social media three hours after liftoff, however neither NASA nor the payload house owners commented on the standing of their cubesats within the first a number of hours after launch. The launch webcast confirmed the deployment of seven of the eight cubesats.

The mission, known as Academic Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa 43) by NASA, carried 4 satellites developed by universities: CatSat from the College of Arizona, KUbeSat-1 from the College of Kansas, MESAT-1 from the College of Maine and SOC-I from the College of Washington. NASA’s Johnson Area Heart supplied the R5-S4 and R5-S2-2.0 satellites whereas the Ames Analysis Heart constructed the TechEdSat-11 cubesat. The eighth cubesat, Serenity, got here from a nonprofit group, Lecturers In Area.

NASA awarded Firefly a contract for the launch by means of its Enterprise Class Launch Companies (VCLS) Demo 2 program to assist new small launch autos. Firefly received the VCLS Demo 2 contract in 2020 together with Astra Area and Relativity Area. Astra’s VCLS launch, in February 2022, failed to achieve orbit when the higher stage of its Rocket 3.3 malfunctioned. Relativity deliberate to make use of its Terran 1 rocket for its VCLS mission, however the corporate introduced in April 2023 it was retiring the car after a single launch that failed to achieve orbit in order that it might deal with its bigger Terran R car.

The launch was the fifth of the Alpha general, and the primary since a December 2023 launch that stranded its payload, a Lockheed Martin know-how demonstration satellite tv for pc, right into a low orbit when the higher stage malfunctioned on a second burn. The corporate later blamed the incident on a software program downside. On this mission, Firefly stated it accomplished a second stage relight and “nominal aircraft change” following deployment of the cubesats.

Firefly has not introduced a date for the subsequent Firefly launch however stated earlier than this launch that it deliberate to carry out as many as 4 Alpha launches this 12 months and as much as six in 2025. The shopper for the subsequent launch is projected to be Lockheed Martin, which introduced June 5 a contract with Firefly for a minimum of 15 and as many as 25 Alpha launches by means of 2029.

Associated