{"id":12558,"date":"2020-04-01T20:42:19","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T12:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/in-parallel-with-rocket-development-firefly-launches-lunar-lander-initiative\/"},"modified":"2020-04-01T20:42:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T12:42:19","slug":"in-parallel-with-rocket-development-firefly-launches-lunar-lander-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/in-parallel-with-rocket-development-firefly-launches-lunar-lander-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"In parallel with rocket development, Firefly launches lunar lander initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artist\u2019s illustration of Firefly\u2019s Genesis moon lander. Credit: Firefly Aerospace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A souped-up version of the Israeli Beresheet moon lander built in Texas could be ready to carry NASA science and technology payloads to the lunar surface before the end of 2022, according to officials from Firefly Aerospace.<\/p>\n

Firefly\u2019s Genesis lander is one of several major projects being developed by the company headquartered just north of Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

The company is also developing the Alpha small satellite launcher, and a bigger rocket named Beta is on the drawing board.<\/p>\n

Officials hope to learn this month whether NASA will sign Firefly to deliver experiments to the moon.<\/p>\n

NASA received proposals March 4 from the agency\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services providers for a task order, or contract, to deliver experiments to a pole of the moon in late 2022. Steve Clarke, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA\u2019s science division, said Tuesday the agency is planning to award the contract in early April.<\/p>\n

Firefly is one of 14 companies in NASA\u2019s pool of robotic lunar transportation providers. The agency announced the 14 companies last year in an initiative to foster a market for private industry to develop vehicles to ferry payloads and cargo to the moon on precursor missions before a crewed lunar landing.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s Artemis program aims to return astronauts to the lunar surface before the end of 2024, a goal set by the Trump administration last year.<\/p>\n

Firefly officials said in a recent interview that the Genesis lander can deliver up to 187 pounds (85 kilograms) of payload to the lunar surface, exceeding NASA\u2019s requirements for the current solicitation, which is designated Task Order 19C.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more payload capacity than the Israeli Beresheet lander, the design basis for Firefly\u2019s Genesis spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Firefly and Israel Aerospace Industries, or IAI, announced the partnership to build the Genesis lander last July. IAI was the prime contractor for the Beresheet lander, a privately-funded project managed by the non-profit SpaceIL that crashed just before landing on the moon in April 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought the best option was to leverage the only (private) organization that had any flight heritage in going to the moon, and that was IAI with the Beresheet mission,\u201d said Shea Ferring, Firefly\u2019s vice president of mission assurance.<\/p>\n

Ferring said Firefly started discussions with IAI before the Beresheet mission\u2019s landing attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had successfully built the lander, launched it, and it completed the majority of its journey to the moon when we decided to team up with them,\u201d Ferring said in a March 20 interview with Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

The Beresheet lander became the first privately-funded mission to enter orbit around the moon. Israeli engineers said a software error led to the lander\u2019s failure during final descent to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n

NASA requires the majority of CLPS lunar landers to be manufactured in the United States.<\/p>\n

The space agency announced last year that landers built by Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and OrbitBeyond won the first round of CLPS task orders. OrbitBeyond later backed out of its agreement with NASA, but the company remains eligible for future CLPS awards.<\/p>\n

Ferring said Firefly\u2019s agreement with IAI was still in an early stage when NASA released a request for bids for the first CLPS missions last year. He said Firefly submitted a bid to \u201ctest the waters\u201d with NASA, and the company received \u201cvaluable feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, we\u2019ve had nearly eight months or more working with IAI and \u2026. evolving the design significantly, so that we can support the next task order which has a much larger payload requirement,\u201d Ferring said. \u201cSo we can leverage all the lessons learned and the key technologies from Beresheet and from IAI, but it\u2019s really a U.S. solution, and it will be produced in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Task Order 19C, Firefly\u2019s Genesis lander is up against proposed lunar landers from space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp., Lockheed Martin, and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel highly confident in this task order that we just submitted a few weeks ago,\u201d Ferring said.<\/p>\n

The CLPS program is modeled after NASA\u2019s initiative to procure cargo transportation for the International Space Station from commercial companies, a program that gave SpaceX its first major customer for the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket. NASA plans up to several CLPS task orders per year, giving Firefly and its competitors opportunities to net contracts for multiple landers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready to go, and that will help shape Firefly just like Dragon shaped SpaceX,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to leverage this award to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CLPS contract \u2014 our pursuit of that \u2014 reflects my interest to make the company diverse as a space infrastructure company,\u201d said Tom Markusic, Firefly\u2019s CEO and a former engineer at SpaceX. \u201cThis kind of goes back to my days at SpaceX, where I saw how important Dragon was to the development of SpaceX.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefly has around 275 full-time employees, according to Markusic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lion\u2019s share of the money to be made in space would require you to be involved not only in launch, but in the spacecraft aspect as well,\u201d Markusic said.<\/p>\n

IAI will provide \u201cspecialty avionics\u201d and \u201cspecialty engineering\u201d support for the Genesis lander, and Aerojet Rocketdyne will supply the spacecraft\u2019s bipropellant hypergolic propulsion system. Firefly will oversee manufacturing of the lander\u2019s structures, assembly and integration, and mission operations, according to Ferring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of dollars, we far exceed the U.S. content requirement, and in terms of total ownership, Firefly is leading the entire program and doing all the integration in the U.S,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Firefly plans to build the Genesis lander at one of the company\u2019s facilities near Austin, Ferring said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIAI has been around over five decades, so they have a lot of experience,\u201d he said. \u201cAerojet has a lot of experience we can leverage, and Firefly brings that aggressive passion \u2014 that \u2018NewSpace\u2019 element \u2014 to the mix to integrate everything and bring a mission together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first Genesis lander mission would likely launch as a rideshare payload with a larger satellite into an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit, according to Ferring. The Beresheet lander launched in a similar manner on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with an Indonesian communications satellite.<\/p>\n

Future Genesis missions could launch on Firefly\u2019s Beta rocket, which is in an early development phase. Firefly says it is evaluating Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s kerosene-fueled AR1 engine for Beta\u2019s first stage booster.<\/p>\n

The AR1 engine and propulsion support on the Genesis lander are key parts of a partnership between Firefly and Aerojet Rocketdyne announced last year.<\/p>\n

Before the Genesis and Beta vehicles reach the launch pad, Firefly is a few months away from the inaugural test flight of its Alpha small satellite launcher from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.<\/p>\n

Tom Markusic, Firefly\u2019s CEO, said the first orbital launch of the Alpha rocket is planned this summer.<\/p>\n

That schedule hinges on the completion of qualification testing at Firefly\u2019s test site in Central Texas, outfitting of the launch pad at Vandenberg, and potential impacts from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Markusic said manufacturing and testing are continuing at Firefly\u2019s Texas facilities amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing our best to hold on to our aspiration, which is to get the launch vehicle to the launch site in June in an effort to do the first launch in the summer,\u201d Markusic said. \u201cWe\u2019re being as creative as we can to protect employees and get them in an environment to still be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work to ready the launch pad at Vandenberg is also a concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building a flight launch vehicle, and it\u2019s actually on the same schedule as the launch site, so we need to able to work on both to achieve our goal for launching this summer,\u201d Markusic said. \u201cSo a shutdown would be very damaging to us. We\u2019re trying to work with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefly is in the midst of qualifying hardware for the Alpha rocket after an unexpected fire cut short a planned test-firing of a ground test unit of Alpha\u2019s first stage in January.<\/p>\n