Firefly Aerospace efficiently launched a satellite tv for pc for the U.S. House Drive final night time with simply 24 hours’ discover, in a record-setting demonstration of fast launch capabilities for nationwide safety missions.
The House Drive gave Firefly discover to launch on September 13, at which level the 24-hour clock began ticking. Inside that window, Firefly managed to finish ultimate launch preparations, replace the flight software program trajectory, encapsulate the Millennium House Programs-made payload and mate it to the Firefly Alpha rocket.
The corporate launched the Victus Nox mission on the first out there window, with Alpha leaving the pad simply 27 hours after the launch discover was obtained.
“In the present day was an unbelievable success for the House Drive, the Firefly crew, and our nation after nailing this advanced responsive area mission,” Invoice Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, mentioned in a press release. “Our mixed business and authorities crew executed the mission with document velocity, agility, and suppleness, including a crucial functionality to handle nationwide safety wants.”
The mission units a brand new document amongst business area corporations for a responsive area launch, by fairly a big margin — the earlier document was set in June 2021 by Northrop Grumman at 21 days. Notably, that is solely the third mission in Firefly’s nine-year historical past.
Millennium House Programs, a Boeing-subsidiary, was additionally profitable in their very own problem: As a part of the mission, that they had 60 hours to move the spacecraft 165 miles from El Segundo, California to Vandenberg House Drive Base and combine it with Alpha’s payload adaptor. They accomplished this work in 58 hours.
“The success of Victus Nox marks a tradition shift in our nation’s potential to discourage adversary aggression and, when required, reply with the operational velocity essential to ship decisive capabilities to our warfighters,” House Programs Command commander Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein mentioned. “This train is a part of an end-to-end Tactically Responsive House demonstration which proves america House Drive can quickly combine capabilities and can reply to aggression when referred to as to take action on tactically related timelines.”
House Programs Command, a part of the House Drive, is tasked with creating and procuring area applied sciences for nationwide safety. The House Drive has had a sustained curiosity in shopping for fast launch capabilities from non-public trade; for this mission, Firefly was awarded $17.6 million.
