Firefly Alpha FLTA005 : ELaNa 43 : VSFB SLC-2W : 04 July 2024 (04:03 UTC)

[gongora]

The press kit released a couple weeks ago only showed one burn before payload deploy.  The commentators said there would be one burn before payload deploy on the webcast when it scrubbed.  It wasn't any last minute change.  Looks like someone just didn't use the right onscreen graphic.

[grfredy]

CatSat has been confirmed deployed after reception from SatNOGS Network and 3rd party observers.

Current estimation of its deployment time around 2024-07-15 15:45 UTC.

None of the current 8 TLE sets seems to fit its orbit, however the TLE sets are ~7days old so this may change.

Source: https://community.libre.space/t/firefly-alpha-noise-of-summer-launch-elana-43-2024-07-04-04-04-utc/11859/70

[PM3]

CatSat has been identified as first payload of this launch.

2024-125J, 546 x 472 km orbit

[catdlr]

Aug 13, 2024
Alpha lit up the night sky across the SW United States just before Independence Day! Relive the excitement of our Noise Of Summer mission that launched 8 NASA CubeSats.

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/Firefly_Space/status/1941157416747565502

Last year, Alpha lit up the night sky during 4th of July celebrations! Today, we celebrate American innovation and the bold spirit that takes us to the stars. Happy Independence Day from all of us at Firefly!