BUSINESS | POLITICS | PERSPECTIVE July 30, 2018 FIREFLY STAGES COMEBACK

Two years after going dark, a Texas rocket startup is ready to light up the sky

INSIDE

Q Liftoff for Britain’s launch industry Q Europe’s next-generation journey Q Small rockets get a timely boost

VISIT SPACENEWS.COM FOR THE LATEST IN SPACE NEWS Firefly’s comeback Firefly’s 12 death experience last year’snear- full force”following startup is“backin The Texas launch A REDEDICATED LAUNCHER low Earthorbit. 4,000to carry kilogramsto and aLightningupperstage 12 Reaverfirst-stageengines the Building ontheFireflyAlpha, | SPACENEWS 07.30.18 Firefly Beta will relyon T Noosphere Ventures, afundthat wasoneof along usingloansuntil lastspring,when investor backed out. Thecompany limped citing financialproblems when anunnamed nounced itwasfurloughingitsentire staff, In late September2016thecompany an- that launch inearly 2018. smallsat launches, withplanstocarryout one ofthree that won NASA contracts for vehicle called Alpha. Thecompany was was makingprogress onasmall launch financial backingfrom itsnewowners. actively marketing that vehicle, withstrong a firstlaunch nextfallfrom California and of itsAlpha launch vehicleslated tomake company isactively developinganewversion Firefly Aerospace quietly startedoperations. but someofthesamemanagement, thenew assets inanauction. With newownership, Firefly’s creditors, acquired thecompany’s Then thebottomfell outofthecompany. Firefly isn’t quietany more, though.The more than150employees and high. TheTexas company had Systems appeared tobeflying wo yearsago, JEFF FOUST Firefly Space going inthecomingmonths.” learn alotjustgettingthefull secondstage qualification testingofthesecondstage exception oftheengine,” hesaid.“So,we’ll between thefirstandsecondstage,with the second stage.“There’s al to move aheadwithtestingofthecomplete tested, Markusicsaid,allowing thecompany with about15,000pounds-force ofthrust. Lightning engine,alsodeveloped at Firefly, force ofthrust.Theupperstagehasasingle each producing more than40,000pounds- by four ofthecompany’s Reaver engines, stage vehiclewithalower stagepowered upper stagesettobeginsoon.Alpha isatwo- stage,” hesaid,withtestingofthevehicle’s right now into that full vehicleintegration Alpha launch vehicle.“We’re transitioning opment work ofanew, largerversion ofthe That “full force” hasincludeextensive devel- Alpha Building struggling togetbackonitsfeet.” cent interview. “We’re notacompany that’s sic, chiefexecutive ofFirefly, saidinare- Markusic saidheanticipates goinginto The Lightning enginehasbeenfully “Firefly isbackinfull force,” Tom Marku- ot ofcommonality

FIREFLY One of the four Reaver engines that power the Firefly Alpha’s first stage undergoes a short-duration test at the company’s Briggs, Texas, development facility.

near the end of the year. Those tests will “There’s a lot of preliminary work that to 2022, starting with SSTL’s Carbonite-4 involve full duration tests of the stage and needs to be done” about using that launch technology demonstration satellite. then “exploring of corners of the box” of pad, from flight safety analyses to the lo- “We have a large catalog of letters of the stage’s performance. “After you’ve gistics of taking it over from ULA. “It looks intent, which of course are nonbinding, done that, you’re ready to start producing like the Delta 2 launch is on schedule, and but at least give you some sense of where flight hardware.” we’ll be able to begin the handoff soon the market is,” he said. He declined to give Around the time the second stage goes after that launch.” a specific number of launches covered by into qualification testing, the first stage He said the company is in “very active those letters, other than it’s “more launches should be ready for its initial tests. Work is discussions” for a second launch site on than we can probably do.” still continuing on its Reaver engines, in the East Coast to handle missions to lower Firefly is looking to the U.S. government particular its turbopump assembly, and he inclination orbits. The three currently un- as one of its markets. “We’re very interested estimated that testing of the turbopump der consideration are Cape Canaveral, the in a government customer for our first should begin in October. proposed Spaceport Camden in Georgia and second launches, and we’re actively Other aspects of Alpha, including its and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. talking to folks about that,” he said. Firefly avionics, software and structures, are going Markusic expects to choose one of those recently established a Washington office well and in some cases ahead of sched- three soon, a decision that could be tied and hired Les Kovacs, former director of ule. Markusic said the company was on to selecting a site for a factory for large- executive branch affairs at ULA, as its track for a first launch in September 2019. scale production of Alpha. “We’re going vice president of business development. Firefly has selected a launch site for to make a decision this quarter,” he said. One of the major decisions the new its initial missions. In May, the company incarnation of Firefly made was to scale announced an agreement with the U.S. Air Selling Alpha up the Alpha vehicle, which can now place Force to take over Space Launch Complex As the company prepares the Alpha and up to 1,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit 2 West (SLC-2W), a launch pad currently its launch sites, it’s stepping up efforts to versus the 200 kilograms of the original used by United Launch Alliance’s Delta 2. sign up customers. In June, the company version. Markusic said that reflects what That pad will become available to Firefly announced its first firm launch contract, the market is looking for both in terms after the venerable Delta 2 performs its with Surrey Satellite Technology. That deal of price and performance.

FIREFLY final launch there in mid-September. covers up to six Alpha launches from 2020 “If we can build this rocket and get

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me, that reflects that smart people have looked at this, and looked at the market, and concluded we’re in the right spot.” Firefly’s vertical test stand awaits Beta and beyond installation of In the interview, Markusic reiterated second-stage past statements that he sees the biggest development tanks. competition to Alpha coming from outside the U.S., particularly from China as well as India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which has become a popular option for launching smallsats as secondary payloads. “I continue to believe that India’s PSLV and perhaps some of the Chinese entrants are our primary competition,” he said. “Alpha is not going to completely win that battle. That’s why we’ve announced our intention to build a vehicle called Beta.” Beta is analogous to the Delta 4 Heavy or the Falcon Heavy, with three Alpha first stages and an Alpha second stage. It would be able to place up to 4,000 kilo- grams into low Earth orbit and at a lower cost than the PSLV. “Beta marks where I think we no doubt dominate the small to medium launch market competing against existing launch vehicles,” he said. Beta is only a conceptual design at this point. “Right now we’ve very much focused on Alpha,” Markusic said. “We’ve got our hands full meeting the September 2019 launch date, so we’re not working on Beta quite yet.” However, he was optimistic that, if Alpha is a success, Beta should be straight- forward to develop because of its use of Alpha hardware. “That’s not to say there won’t be technical challenges associated with doing a triple-core configuration like it to flight on time, we will have no that, but it is less challenging than doing In Texas, about problem filling up our launch manifest,” a clean-sheet rocket.” half of Firefly’s he said. “All the feedback we’re getting so Developing Beta opens up other mar- far from commercial customers, both do- kets for the company. One that Markusic 140 employees mestic and international, and government highlighted is NASA’s return to the moon. worked for the customers says that this will be a vehicle “Commercial lunar cargo is something that’s that will be in high demand.” interesting to us as a potential large-scale earlier Firefly. The competition, he says, is also trend- growth path for the company,” he said. ing toward larger vehicles. “If you look at That could start with providing launch some of the new entrants, the very new services to companies developing lunar ones, they’re essentially copying our pay- lander missions for NASA’s Commer- load class and price point,” he said. “To cial Lunar Payload Services program. FIREFLY

14 | SPACENEWS 07.30.18 The Firefly Beta rocket will stand However, he suggested Firefly could de- roughly 34 velop its own landers someday, drawing meters tall. an analogy of how NASA’s commercial cargo program allowed SpaceX to go from just building launch vehicles to building spacecraft as well. “I think that Commercial Lunar Pay- load Services potentially offers that kind of opportunity for Firefly, where we go from Alpha to Beta, which is very well suited to some of the precursor landers, and then to even having the in-house lander capability, which gets us into that spacecraft area,” he said. “That’s something we’re looking at carefully and seeing if we want to engage in that.” The company is open to other uncon- ventional opportunities. Markusic said one option Firefly is considering is being a supplier of launch vehicle components, “Firefly is back in full force,” says Tom Markusic, like engines, to other companies. “One the company’s chief executive. thing that I think that’s unfortunate about NewSpace and the development the field, getting this hardware ready for of these new launch companies is you first flight,” he said. The company will have start from scratch,” he said. “What look to raise outside capital for future I would ultimately do is to have Firefly growth, including development of Beta. become the OEM supplier for NewSpace.” The company’s Texas facilities have Why, though, would Firefly want to about 140 employees now, close to the sell components to potential competi- size of the original Firefly when it ran into tors? “You can do economies of scale, financial problems two years ago, and the if we’re using parts on our vehicle and company is actively hiring. The company people are using them on their vehicles,” recently opened an office in Ukraine with he said. “We’re producing more of them about 30 people that will do some engi- and driving everyone’s costs down, neering and design work as well. which is one of the ultimate core goals In Texas, about half of the current of NewSpace.” employees worked for the earlier Firefly. “These are some real adventurers,” he said “Stronger than ever” of them. “Having gone through that pain Firefly is on sound financial footing after and coming back, I think, speaks a lot to the ups-and-downs of the last two years. their dedication. Those people are really Noosphere Ventures is providing all the forming the core, the backbone of this capital the company currently needs, new company.” Markusic said, but didn’t give a specific “We’ve got a lot to do in the next year, dollar amount. Max Polyakov, the founder but we’re really on track,” he said near the of Noosphere Ventures, has committed end of the interview. He sounded a little to funding the company through the first tired, and acknowledged that he was. Alpha launch. “That tired sound is not from being dis- “That’s really beneficial, because it al- couraged. It’s just there’s so much to do,” lows me to spend a lot less time thinking he said. “I feel very blessed and fortunate, about the financials and the fundraising given what we’ve been through. We’re and more time with our young team in stronger than ever in every respect.” SN FIREFLY

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