{"id":13143,"date":"2019-06-19T01:31:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/firefly-offering-free-launch-for-research-and-educational-payloads\/"},"modified":"2019-06-19T01:31:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:31:31","slug":"firefly-offering-free-launch-for-research-and-educational-payloads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/firefly-offering-free-launch-for-research-and-educational-payloads\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefly offering free launch for research and educational payloads"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Firefly Aerospace conducted a 300-second qualification firing of the Alpha rocket\u2019s complete second stage in April at the company\u2019s test site in Central Texas. Credit: Firefly Aerospace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Firefly Aerospace is asking academic institutions, startup companies and the public to submit ideas for payloads to launch, free of charge, on the inaugural orbital flight of the company\u2019s Alpha rocket next year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.<\/p>\n

The Texas-based launch company said the initiative to host academic and educational payloads on the first Alpha launch will promote education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re calling the flight opportunity the Dedicated Research and Education Accelerator Mission, or DREAM payload,\u201d said Tom Markusic, CEO of Firefly. \u201cWe encourage educational institutions, startup space enterprises, or any other institution that has big space dreams to visit Firefly.com and tell us about your DREAM space payload.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groups interested in Firefly\u2019s offer can read the company\u2019s terms in this document.<\/p>\n

Officials did not say how much mass and volume will be allotted to the educational payloads.<\/p>\n

Firefly said the DREAM payloads will ride into orbit with an unspecified commercial payload. The identity of the primary payload for the inaugural flight of Firefly\u2019s Alpha launcher has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n

The two-stage Alpha rocket being developed by Firefly is designed to loft up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) into a low-altitude orbit. The Alpha is one of many privately-developed small satellite launchers new to the market, and the kerosene-fueled rocket will initially launch from Space Launch Complex 2-West at Vandenberg, a military base around 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron, which is already operational, Virgin Orbit\u2019s air-dropped LauncherOne, and Vector Launch\u2019s Vector-R rocket are among Firefly\u2019s competitors in the dedicated small satellite launch market.<\/p>\n

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Artist\u2019s concept of Firefly\u2019s Alpha launch vehicle. Credit: Firefly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201c\u2018Making Space for Everyone\u2019 has been an essential part of Firefly\u2019s vision and dream since the day we began,\u201d Markusic said in a statement. \u201cI\u2019m proud to announce today that we\u2019re following through on that commitment by opening a competition, to literally everyone, for the use of the excess capacity of our first Alpha launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll ideas are welcome \u2013 from a child\u2019s drawing, to a university science experiment, to a startup company CubeSat \u2013 so we encourage everyone to propose their idea for a DREAM payload to Firefly for consideration,\u201d Markusic said.<\/p>\n

Firefly intended to take over the SLC-2W launch pad at the end of last year. The last Delta 2 rocket launch from SLC-2W occurred last September.<\/p>\n

But delays in the handover of the pad from United Launch Alliance to Firefly have kept ground crews from outfitting the ground infrastructure for the Alpha rocket.<\/p>\n

Les Kovacs, Firefly\u2019s vice president of business development, said at an industry conference earlier this month that the first Alpha launch is scheduled for no earlier than the first quarter of 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working tirelessly for the past few years to develop Alpha, a game-changing small satellite launch vehicle,\u201d Markusic said. \u201cAnd finally our first launch is within sight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both stages of the 95-foot-tall (29-meter) Alpha rocket will burn a mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen. Four Reaver engines on the first stage will generate more than 165,000 pounds of thrust at maximum power, and a Lightning engine on the second stage will produce more than 15,000 pounds of thrust.<\/p>\n

In March, Firefly began hotfire testing of the integrated turbopump-fed first stage Reaver engine at a test site in Briggs, Texas. Engineers conducted a 300-second qualification firing of a full Alpha second stage \u2014 with a Lightning engine \u2014 at the Briggs test site in April.<\/p>\n

Firefly Aerospace was previously named Firefly Space Systems before entering bankruptcy. The renamed company emerged from bankruptcy proceedings in 2017 under new ownership.<\/p>\n

Noosphere Ventures, a Menlo Park, California-based firm led by managing partner Max Polyakov, now funds Firefly\u2019s rocket development program. Markusic told Spaceflight Now earlier this year that Firefly is fully funded, with Noosphere\u2019s backing, through the initial launches of the company\u2019s Alpha rocket.<\/p>\n

Firefly\u2019s other projects beyond the Alpha launcher include the Beta rocket, which will be made up of three Alpha first stage cores combined together to haul heavier payloads into orbit. Firefly also has ambitions for a robotic lunar lander, a space tug powered by electric thrusters, and a reusable spaceplane.<\/p>\n

Firefly announced in February that its second launch site would be located at the disused Complex 20 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Firefly Aerospace conducted a 300-second qualification firing of the Alpha rocket\u2019s complete second stage in April at the company\u2019s test site in Central Texas. Credit: Firefly Aerospace Firefly Aerospace is asking academic institutions, startup companies and the public to submit ideas for payloads to launch, free of charge, on the inaugural orbital flight of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[444,291,1608,1873,443,25,2622,2623],"class_list":["post-13143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alpha","tag-commercial-space","tag-cubesats","tag-education","tag-firefly-aerospace","tag-launch","tag-space-launch-complex-2-west","tag-stem"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}