'Momentum high' as Cedar Park's Firefly Aerospace prepares for moon missions with NASA

As NASA gears up to return to the moon in the coming years, Cedar Park-based aerospace company Firefly Aerospace is preparing technology that will play a key role in two trips in the next several years.

Firefly is working full speed ahead as it prepares for government and commercial missions that will bring its customers more access to space in the coming years, including supporting NASA’s upcoming moon exploration, according to company leaders. This includes a new contract it was awarded last month, through which the company will help bring experiments and explore the near and dark sides of the moon for NASA.

NASA's push for more moon exploration is related to its Artemis program, which is intended to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, including the first woman. Firefly is one of a growing number of space-focused companies competing for government and commercial contracts, including Elon Musk's SpaceX, as a new space race has heated up and there is a push to develop satellites, vehicles and other needed space exploration technology.

Firefly was founded in 2014 in California before moving to Cedar Park later that year. The company is among an emerging group of launch providers serving the small satellite market, and it has contracts with multiple commercial and government customers, including NASA and General Atomics.

Bill Weber, the CEO of Firefly, said the company has an exciting road ahead.

“Firefly’s momentum is at an all-time high,” Weber, who became CEO last year, said in a statement. “Firefly is executing on major milestones across our launch, in-space, and lunar delivery programs, and the company is growing rapidly to support two Blue Ghost missions to the moon.”

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Firefly makes a number of products, including rockets, as well as in-space vehicles, such as its Blue Ghost lunar lander, which will be used to bring equipment to the moon's surface, and a space utility vehicle, a type of reusable, space-based vehicle designed to take cargo and other spacecraft out of low Earth orbit to distances as far as the moon.

In 2021, the company launched its first flagship rocket, an unmanned spacecraft called Alpha. The 95-foot-long spacecraft was able to achieve liftoff and fly for 2½ minutes, but its flight ultimately ended in an explosion after Space Force officials overseeing the launch detonated the rocket when it tipped sideways and off course before reaching low Earth orbit. Alpha and other rockets the company is working on are designed to serve the small-satellite market to carry payloads to space.

In October, the company launched Alpha a second time, and it successfully reached orbit. The company is now moving toward a more rapid pace, and, in addition to its NASA contracts, is working on the ability to launch the rocket every two months.

Growth comes under recent ownership switch

The momentum comes after the company gained a new majority owner last year, AE Industrial Partners. The private equity firm acquired a majority stake as Firefly was preparing for its second rocket launch. At the time, the company estimated its valuation was more than $1 billion, and the new ownership and additional funding it raised at the time positioned the company for growth. The private equity group bought out stock from then-majority shareholder, Max Polyakov, a Ukrainian, after national security concerns were raised.

Even before the ownership change, the company had been poised for rapid expansion in Central Texas. In 2021, the Cedar Park City Council approved a 10-year economic development agreement with a total value to the company of $4.3 million through which it agreed to create 682 new jobs over the same period. Firefly said at the time it planned to buy a 45,000-square-foot facility to accommodate its expansion, with plans to quadruple its workforce. At the time, the company had about 165 Central Texas employees.

Across its facilities, Firefly now has more than 550 employees, and more than 70 open jobs in roles including propulsion, test operations, machining, business operations and spacecraft. The company has Central Texas facilities in Cedar Park and nearby Briggs; as well as in Cape Canaveral, Fla., plus it also launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

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How will Firefly help NASA explore the moon?

Last month, the company announced it had been awarded a $112 million NASA contract to deliver multiple lunar payloads, or cargo, in 2026. Under the contract, Firefly plans to use its Blue Ghost spacecraft to place a satellite into lunar orbit and then deliver two research payloads on the far side of the moon.

The contract is Firefly’s second under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. The first calls for using the Blue Ghost lander to deliver 10 NASA payloads to the near side of the moon in 2024, after hitching a ride on a Falcon 9 rocket designed by Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX. Firefly said the missions will help advance moon research and infrastructure in conjunction with NASA’s Moon-to-Mars road map through its Artemis program.

The company said it is focused on final assembly of its Blue Ghost lunar lander at its spacecraft facilities. From there, it will focus on completing electrical and propulsion elements this year, and move into environmental testing early next year, with the aim of launching in mid-2024.

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NASA’s Artemis program is made up of multiple missions and intends to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, establish a sustainable human presence on the moon by 2028, do research on the lunar surface and lay the foundation for private companies to build a moon economy. The mission also aims to be a step toward humanity's "next big leap": to send humans to Mars.

Outside of those contracts, the company also was selected by NASA to provide launch services to carry experiments and equipment to the lunar surface.

Weber said reaching the point of being involved in lunar missions is incredibly exciting for the company.

“With a team that reflects Texas’ Go Big culture in everything we do, Firefly is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land and operate in space – anywhere, anytime,” Weber said, adding that the latest Blue Ghost contract gets the company one step closer to achieving that and making space more attainable for everyone.

Jana Spruce, Firefly's vice president of spacecraft, said the contract is “another vote of confidence” for the spacecraft and Firefly’s other products.

The company uses many of the same components, teams and facilities across its product offerings. For example, the company’s space utility vehicles, Blue Ghost and Alpha rocket all use similar structures and engines, which Spruce said reduces costs and assures customers.

May 2023 full moon will be on May 5. Full moon dates for 2023 listed.

What else is coming up for Firefly?

Weber said the company has major milestones ahead across its launch, in-space and lunar delivery programs, including supporting two missions to the moon. Upcoming missions for the company include the first use of its space utility vehicle, as well as work to test and produce its new medium launch vehicle, a larger rocket than Alpha.

The company said it is also stepping up production of Alpha rockets to be used for multiple government and commercial missions in 2023.

This includes a responsive space mission for the U.S Space Force through which an Alpha rocket will deploy a Millennium Space Systems satellite. Once in orbit, the satellite will conduct a mission designed to better understand and monitor what objects are around it. The company also has an upcoming mission through NASA in which it will launch several payloads for satellite developers at educational institutions and nonprofits to use for research.

The company is also working to develop a medium launch vehicle with aerospace and defense technology giant Northrop Grumman, which is scheduled for its first launch in 2025. The company said the rocket would help fill a void in the "medium class market" and provide a more affordable option for government and commercial customers. The company said the rocket's engine hardware is being produced and tested.

Weber said Firefly's work in the coming years could include deliveries and orbital services between Earth and the moon, including bringing back moon samples, and possibly ferrying services to nearby planets like Mars and Venus.

“Looking ahead," Weber said, "Firefly’s evolving line of launch vehicles and spacecraft will provide more access to space and support more advanced missions over the next five to 10 years.”

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What other aerospace companies are in Central Texas?

The rocket company is among several Central Texas companies developing a range of space-related technologies, including satellites, software and ideas for housing in space, as part of a growing aerospace industry.

This includes Icon, an Austin-based 3D-printing construction company that plans to take its technology out of this world. Last year, the company, which uses giant 3D printers to build houses and other construction projects, was awarded $57.2 million by NASA for the development of a system to build structures on the moon.

A California and Austin-based company, Slingshot Aerospace, makes air traffic control-style software for satellites and other space objects, and it has raised funding in recent years to commercialize its products.

SpaceX, the aerospace company led by billionaire Elon Musk, which has a large South Texas facility and launch site, is also expanding into Bastrop, building out a more than 500,000-square-foot building where it plans to hire several hundred people.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Cedar Park's Firefly Aerospace prepare for moon missions with NASA