Firefly Aerospace updates

[DocM]

 

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Earlier this month, Virgin Galactic filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Firefly Systems and two of its officers, Michael Blum and P.J. King, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition.

 

The lawsuit is related to arbitration between Virgin Galactic and the company’s former vice president of propulsion, Thomas Markusic. Virgin alleges Markusic took trade secrets and confidential information with him when he left his position at the end of 2013 to co-found Firefly with Blum and King.

 

The lawsuit alleges that Firefly, Blum and King benefited from knowledge that Markusic took with him from Virgin Galactic. Markusic and the defendants have denied the claims.

 

Firefly laid off all of its employees at the end of September, saying the company had run out of money after an investor pulled out.

 

Firefly was developing a small satellite launcher, Firefly Alpha, that would have competed for business with the LauncherOne booster that Virgin Galactic is developing.

 

 

[DocM]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/10/25/virgin-galactic-sues-firefly-officers-alleged-misappropriation-trade-secrets/

[Blue-Vision]

Ouch.  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

I'm still hoping an entity will purchase all tangible assets and carry on...too much here to be forgotten and dust covered, or worse, scrapped.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Customers Rally in Support of Firefly Space Systems

 

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November 14th, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Cedar Park, Texas, November 14, 2016 

 

Letters of Intent valued at over $300M exceed projected launch capacity through 2021

 

Firefly Space Systems, the Texas-based developer of dedicated launch vehicles for the small satellite market, announced today it has received letters of intent (LOI) in excess of projected launch capacity through 2021.

 

“The support from established and newspace satellite manufacturers following our recent announcement of financial difficulties has been tremendous. These LOI’s demonstrate the market demand for the small satellite launch product that Firefly is developing,” said Firefly co-Founder and CEO Dr. Thomas Markusic.

 

Firefly received LOI’s for 42 launches through the end of 2021, valued at over $300M. An additional 35 launches valued at over $280M have been requested through 2025. A total of 9 customers have submitted LOI’s to Firefly for future launches.

 

“Our customers’ needs reflect the increasing market demand for small satellite launch capacity. They have unanimously encouraged Firefly to continue development of the Firefly Alpha vehicle as a critical component in the overall success of the emerging newspace industry,” added Markusic.

 

“We are in discussions with multiple potential financing partners to fund our ongoing development and will repay the faith our customers have shown by providing the lowest cost, highest frequency launch service in the world.”

http://www.fireflyspace.com/news/ournews/customers-rally-in-support-of-firefly-space-systems

 

Fingers crossed...there is always hope.

 

[Beittil]

I don't understand this rush of activity from the on social media lately... come on! Your company is in ruins, entire staff jobless and your posting silly crap on Twitter/Facebook. What up Doc....

[DocM]

 

[Blue-Vision]

 

[DocM]

 

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Reformed Firefly Plans Upgraded Alpha Rocket

 

When promising U.S. space startup rocket company Firefly shut down late last year in the face of severe financial problems, it seemed a salutary reminder of the risks facing the many newcomers chasing the small-satellite market. Now, just a few months later, the surprise rebirth of a newly capitalized Firefly is reinforcing investor and industry faith in the growing potential of the dedicated small-sat launch business as order books continue to build. The vehicle developer is not only fully ...(paywall)

 

 

[Beittil]

So, are we still talking the same management, same vehicle, engine, etc? What about their real estate? They got to keep their dev site in Tx?

[DocM]

What we do know,

 

Vehicle name: Reaver (Firefly Reaver )
Fully funded 
Pump fed engine 

Uprated performance

~2019

[DocM]

 

[Beittil]

Hmm, I never really dived into the subject matter, but does anyone here know what became of all those allegations against Marcusic?

 

I believe they had a work force of like 50-60 people at the time the company was shutdown because of it, must feel like a 'kick while they are down' to them to see Firefly up and running again like this. I wonder if any of them rejoined the company.

[DocM]

Money was transferred and violating tech companies development ceased, but Tom Markusic is still CEO. They're up to about 100 people now.

[DocM]

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Firefly Aerospace Inc. (Firefly) was founded to provide economical, high-frequency access to space for small payloads through the design, manufacture and operation of reliable launch vehicles. The Firefly team addresses the markets need for flexible access to space with a simplest, soonest approach to technology selection. 

Fireflys engineering team is comprised of industry-proven leaders with experience in building both commercial launch vehicles and successful technology firms. Augmenting and rounding out this team are passionate young minds from the countrys top engineering schools. Each vehicle is engineered with cross-industry design insights and leverages high maturity design elements and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components to reduce risk and increase reliability. Fireflys manufacturing process is highly vertically integrated. Propulsion, structures and avionics are designed, built and tested in-house. The technologies employed in our Alpha flagship vehicle provide a clear pathway for future incremental improvements in vehicle capability.

Fireflys facilities include a 20,000-square foot design campus in Cedar Park, Texas, just north of Austin, which houses the corporate headquarters, engineering staff, prototyping facilities and machine shop. The Firefly Briggs operations facility, a 200-acre test and production site, is a short drive north from the design campus. It hosts extensive and growing test and manufacturing capabilities. Briggs facilities house ground systems fabrication, a test control center, surface finishing/processing, composites fabrication and assembly production. Briggs is also home to the propulsion, structures and materials testing range, whose close proximity to the design campus facilitates rapid transitions from paper to proven designs. A horizontal engine test stand, a vertical stage test stand, and high-pressure component stand are available for low-cost rapid developmental testing. 

Fireflys first launch is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019. By the first quarter of 2021, production capacity will support the launch of two Alpha vehicles per month.

 

Firefly rocket with a Reaver engine 

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by DocM

[flyingskippy]

Didn't they have an aerospike engine planned before? 

 

Not only are they developing  completely new engine, but they will not have engine out capability with just 4.....

 

Are they trying to play it safe and go the easy route? 

[DocM]

The thruster design in the aerospike was "borrowed" from Virgin Galactic, causing the lawsuit which shut them down. Dunno why they didn't go with 5 engines to get engine out.

[DocM]

http://spacenews.com/firefly-aerospace-to-take-over-vandenberg-delta-2-pad/

 

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Firefly Aerospace to take over Vandenberg Delta 2 pad

 

WASHINGTON  Firefly Aerospace, a small launch vehicle developer, has won approval from the U.S. Air Force to take over a launch pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base used by the soon-to-retire Delta 2.

In a May 1 statement, Texas-based Firefly said the Air Force had issued a "Statement of Support" to transfer Space Launch Complex 2 West (SLC-2W) at Vandenberg to the company for use by the company's Alpha and Beta launch vehicles.

SLC-2W, which has been in service for more than 50 years, is currently used by United Launch Alliance's Delta 2 vehicle. That rocket is slated to make its final launch this September, carrying NASAs ICESat-2 Earth science satellite.

Brad Obrocto, director of launch operations at Firefly, told SpaceNews that the company expects to take over the pad shortly after that final Delta 2 launch.
>

 

[DocM]

 

Payload users guide (PDF)

 

Firefly Beta ("Alpha Heavy")

 

[Blue-Vision]

That's friggin' cool! :yes: 

 

4,000 kg to LEO isn't something to sneeze at either. Not for a LV as small as this. Firefly Heavy should be able to do some neat things in that weight class.

 

Let's do the math. :D 

 

4,000kg LEO capability, 28.5 degree inclination == 1784.54kg to GTO capability (roughly a 0.4462:1 ratio for GTO with this vehicle, not quite half -- and not shabby, either!)

Initial LEO speed needs to be 7784.25 m/s from launch.

Orbital characteristics required for the transfer orbit needs to be 37,586 x 200; Transfer orbit dV is +2454.58 m/s.

Once there, injection into the circular orbit dV is 1836.49 m/s. Final orbital velocity is 3074.66, orbital period is 23.93446 hours. No residuals.

 

So it needs a surplus dV of 4291.07 m/s in order to put 1784.54kg to GTO.

 

:yes: 

 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

Staffing is back to pre-crisis levels ?

 

Test of Firefly's Lightning pump-fed tap-off cycle engine, which uses combustion chamber gases to drive the turbomachinery. No gas generator or pre-burner.

 

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

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R. Amos Behana of Firefly Aerospace, in commercial space panel, says the company is on track to start integrated second stage testing of its Alpha launch vehicle by the end of this year; first launch 4th quarter 2019.

https://twitter.com/jeff_foust/status/1054843589681909760?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^embeddedtimeline|twterm^list%3ASpaceNews_Inc%3Aspacenews|twcon^timelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fspacenews.com%2F

[Draggendrop Veteran]

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Our engineers at Firefly are working on something new…any guesses? #MakingWormholesForEveryone

https://twitter.com/Firefly_Space/status/1064622898327867393

 

 

 

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Halo ring for stage integration ... or is it?

https://twitter.com/Firefly_Space/status/1064655031763255296

 

 

[Beittil]

I had to lol at it when I first saw the Twitter/FB posts about it. Not because of the Stargate references (which were fun), but more because of the 'something new' thing. Lol, Like, every other rocket company on the planet already uses this system for easier handling of their rockets in construction... but nooooo, these guys are working on 'something new'.

 

HAHA