{"id":5236,"date":"2025-05-30T11:22:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T03:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/northrop-grumman-invests-50m-in-firefly-aerospace-to-accelerate-eclipse-launch-vehicle\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T11:22:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T03:22:31","slug":"northrop-grumman-invests-50m-in-firefly-aerospace-to-accelerate-eclipse-launch-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/northrop-grumman-invests-50m-in-firefly-aerospace-to-accelerate-eclipse-launch-vehicle\/","title":{"rendered":"Northrop Grumman Invests $50M in Firefly Aerospace to Accelerate Eclipse Launch Vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Northrop<\/p>\n

Northrop Grumman Corporation has invested $50 million into Firefly Aerospace to further advance production of their co-developed medium launch vehicle, now known as Eclipse. The companies continue to make progress in the development of Eclipse flight hardware, with qualification testing underway and more than 60 Miranda engine hot fire tests performed to date.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>Firefly<\/em> is incredibly grateful for <\/em>Northrop Grumman<\/em>\u2019s investment that further solidifies our first-of-its-kind partnership to build the first stage of Antares 330 and jointly develop Eclipse,\u201d said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace<\/strong>. \u201c<\/em>Eclipse<\/em> represents two powerful forces coming together to transform the launch market with decades of flight heritage, a rapid, iterative approach, and bold innovation. With a 16 metric ton to orbit capability, Eclipse is a sweet spot for programs like NSSL Lane 1 and a natural fit to launch proliferated constellations in <\/em>LEO<\/em>, <\/em>MEO<\/em>, <\/em>GEO<\/em>, and TLI.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Built upon Northrop Grumman\u2019s Antares and Firefly\u2019s Alpha rocket, Eclipse offers a significant leap in power, performance, production cadence, and payload capacity. The launch vehicle retains the flight-proven avionics from the Antares program with additional upgrades, including a larger 5.4-meter payload fairing. Eclipse also utilizes the same first stage Firefly is developing for Antares 330 and retains scaled-up versions of Alpha\u2019s propulsion systems and carbon composite structures, allowing the team to rapidly build and test Eclipse with significant production efficiencies and economies of scale.<\/p>\n

\n

Also Read: What are the the Different Types of Launch Vehicles used in Space?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

Firefly utilized the same patented tap-off cycle architecture from Alpha\u2019s Reaver and Lightning engines for Eclipse\u2019s Miranda and Vira engines, and completed the mission duty cycle with a 206-second Miranda hot fire, matching the longest time the engine will burn during a flight. Following several development test campaigns, flight hardware has been manufactured for the common dome propellant tanks, engine bay, and interstage.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em>Eclipse<\/em> gives customers the right balance between payload capacity and affordability,\u201d said Wendy Williams, vice president and general manager, launch and missile defense systems, <\/em>Northrop Grumman<\/em>. \u201cOur partnership with <\/em>Firefly<\/em> builds on our capacity to provide crucial space-based communication, observation, and exploration for civil and national security customers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Filling a void in an underserved market, Eclipse is equipped to deliver 16,300 kg of cargo to low Earth orbit or 3,200 kg of cargo to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Eclipse will first launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, as early as 2026 and is able to support space station resupply, commercial spacecraft, critical national security missions, and scientific payloads for the domestic and international markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northrop Grumman Corporation has invested $50 million into Firefly Aerospace to further advance production of their co-developed medium launch vehicle, now known as Eclipse. The companies continue to make progress in the development of Eclipse flight hardware, with qualification testing underway and more than 60 Miranda engine hot fire tests performed to date. \u201cFirefly is incredibly […]<\/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":[25,54,56,49],"class_list":["post-5236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-launch","tag-launch-vehicle-platforms","tag-propellant-tanks","tag-propulsion-systems"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236"}],"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=5236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}