April 7, 2025Firefly Aerospace Awarded DoD Contract for Responsive On-Orbit Mission with Elytra SpacecraftMission will utilize Firefly’s Elytra vehicle to perform on-demand orbital maneuvers and space domain awarenessCedar Park, Texas, April 7, 2025 – Firefly Aerospace, the leader in end-to-end responsive space services, today announced it was awarded a contract to perform a responsive on-orbit mission with its Elytra spacecraft in support of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Sinequone Project. During the DoD mission, Elytra will serve as a space maneuver vehicle to perform a series of responsive on-orbit tasks, including space domain awareness operations in low Earth orbit (LEO). The mission is set to launch as early as 2027.“Firefly has proven our ability to rapidly and reliably launch, land, and operate in space as we continue to execute bold missions from LEO to lunar orbit and beyond,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “This national security mission will further demonstrate our ability to perform responsive on-orbit tasks when and where our customers need them with our highly maneuverable Elytra orbital vehicle. To achieve this, we equipped Elytra with many of the same flight-proven systems Firefly utilized to successfully land on the Moon after traveling 2.8 million miles across cislunar space.”As part of the mission, Elytra will host a suite of government payloads, including optical visible and infrared cameras, a responsive navigation unit, and a universal electrical bus with a payload interface module. Firefly’s Elytra Dawn configuration will utilize common components from the company’s launch vehicles and lunar landers, including the avionics, composite structures, and propulsion systems, to enable on-demand mobility, plane changes, and maneuvers with high delta-V capabilities and reliability. Elytra’s main engine, called Spectre, was recently flight-proven on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander as the reaction control system thrusters that successfully performed Firefly’s final descent on the Moon on March 2.The DoD contract supports the DIU’s Sinequone project that aims to deliver cost-effective, responsive access beyond Geosynchronous orbits, referred to as xGEO. This mission in LEO is the first step to enable future access and operations in xGEO on a responsive timeline. The award follows Firefly’s initial trade studies that were completed for the DIU in 2024.As demand for responsive on-orbit services continues to grow, Firefly is expanding its spacecraft production capabilities and was recently awarded an $8.2 million grant from the Texas Space Commission to add additional spacecraft clean room space, test facilities, and infrastructure. This will allow Firefly to mass produce Elytra in higher quantities at a lower cost in support of long-haul communications relays, on-orbit payload hosting, maneuverability, and other responsive services across cislunar space.
As of April 2025, Elytra is contracted to perform a responsive on-orbit mission in support of the DoD’s DIU Sinequone Project. During this mission, Elytra will serve as a space maneuver vehicle to perform a series of on-orbit tasks including space domain awareness in LEO. Available to launch on Alpha and Eclipse, our Elytra vehicles are positioned to service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions.
Defense Innovation Unit: We signed an agreement with the DIU to conduct a trade study on our capabilities to rapidly launch our Elytra vehicles and support missions beyond Geosynchronous Orbit (“xGEO”). Once completed, we will conduct up to two demonstrations to deliver multiple payloads to xGEO orbits aboard our Elytra Dark spacecraft with the first mission completed within 18 months of receiving the approval to proceed. The contract will support the Sinequone Project, the DIU’s mission to develop responsive access to xGEO.
Elytra is designed to support rapid, end-to-end demonstration missions, especially for military satellites. Elytra was recently selected to support the DoD’s DIU Sinequone Project. As part of the mission, Elytra will host a suite of government payloads, including optical visible and infrared cameras, a responsive navigation unit, and a universal electrical bus. Elytra’s configuration will utilize common components, structures, and propulsion systems to enable on-demand mobility, plane changes and maneuvers with high performance capabilities and reliability
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to provide a new monolithic telescope for a responsive space mission that will launch as early as 2027.Firefly Aerospace will host and operate the payload onboard its Elytra orbital vehicle during the mission in low Earth orbit (LEO), the area in space that ranges from about 60 miles to about 1,240 miles above the Earth.“LLNL is excited to begin this new collaboration with Firefly for responsive space capabilities, demonstrating unprecedented speed to mission, unique capabilities for a variety of space environments and exceptional in-space imaging,” said Benjamin Bahney, LLNL’s space program leader.
Elytra Mission 3 contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unitfor a 2027 national security mission.
Completed Preliminary Design Review for Elytra Mission 3, maturing the vehicle's high maneuverability design for the Defense Innovation Unit's space domain awareness demonstration mission.
