The Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster. https://firefly.com/beta/
Quote from: Daniels30 on 08/08/2022 05:41 pmThe Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster. https://firefly.com/beta/AFAIU a derivative of the Beta booster to sort NG's needs.
Quote from: russianhalo117 on 08/08/2022 07:21 pmQuote from: Daniels30 on 08/08/2022 05:41 pmThe Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster. https://firefly.com/beta/AFAIU a derivative of the Beta booster to sort NG's needs.One would imagine that Firefly would like to have as much commonality between the Antares 330 and Firefly Beta first stages as possible, and Firefly Beta is at an early enough stage of development that they could basically just design the first stage to fit Antares, then design their own in-house second stage to fit that first stage.
Quote from: trimeta on 08/08/2022 07:24 pmQuote from: russianhalo117 on 08/08/2022 07:21 pmQuote from: Daniels30 on 08/08/2022 05:41 pmThe Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster. https://firefly.com/beta/AFAIU a derivative of the Beta booster to sort NG's needs.One would imagine that Firefly would like to have as much commonality between the Antares 330 and Firefly Beta first stages as possible, and Firefly Beta is at an early enough stage of development that they could basically just design the first stage to fit Antares, then design their own in-house second stage to fit that first stage.Beta has 7 Miranda and Antares 3xx series graphic is different on the aft end in that has 3 inline engines, a different thrust structure, boattail and the new stage is slightly stretched to ~4.1m to add propellant capacity whilst maintaining the predecessor stages original height. The Beta is 55.66m overall with its first stage greater in length than Antares and 4.3m in diameter. Keep in mind that the pathfinder Beta firsts stage was subscale.
Quote from: russianhalo117 on 08/08/2022 07:37 pmQuote from: trimeta on 08/08/2022 07:24 pmQuote from: russianhalo117 on 08/08/2022 07:21 pmQuote from: Daniels30 on 08/08/2022 05:41 pmThe Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster. https://firefly.com/beta/AFAIU a derivative of the Beta booster to sort NG's needs.One would imagine that Firefly would like to have as much commonality between the Antares 330 and Firefly Beta first stages as possible, and Firefly Beta is at an early enough stage of development that they could basically just design the first stage to fit Antares, then design their own in-house second stage to fit that first stage.Beta has 7 Miranda and Antares 3xx series graphic is different on the aft end in that has 3 inline engines, a different thrust structure, boattail and the new stage is slightly stretched to ~4.1m to add propellant capacity whilst maintaining the predecessor stages original height. The Beta is 55.66m overall with its first stage greater in length than Antares and 4.3m in diameter. Keep in mind that the pathfinder Beta firsts stage was subscale.The Antares 330 render does show three in-line engines, but the press release says "The Antares 330 will utilize seven of Firefly’s Miranda engines." So I think they're both using seven engines. This also calls into question the accuracy of other parts of the renders, so we can't rely on those to spot differences.You're right that the Antares 330 first stage will be sized to have the same height as the 230's first stage, so that the GSE for the second stage and payload can stay the same, but I think they'd sooner redesign the Firefly Beta around those parameters than build a stage with different dimensions.
Along with this, it seems like Firefly has changed the design of their Beta rocket. Its engines aren't Reaver 2 and Lightning 2, now they're Miranda and Viranda. The rocket went from 3.6m diameter to 4.3m diameter and payload to LEO from 8t to 13t.
Schumacher said Firefly completed a fueling milestone for the second Alpha launch on Monday, known as a wet dress rehearsal – with a hot fire engine test scheduled for later this week.“We are planning on our first launch window for that second flight, [which opens] on September 11,” Schumacher said.
Just read their lander user guide. They are also developing a space tug that can be used to deliver theirs and others landers to LLO then stay in orbit as comms relay. Firefly answer to RL Photon.
[Bill] Weber was previously president and chief executive of KeyW Corporation, a cyberspace operations and geospatial intelligence company serving the national security community. [...] he was an executive at several other companies supporting the federal government in national security and diplomacy, including XLA, Kaseman and GTSI Corporation. He also was a founding partner of First Light Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) seeking to merge with a company in the aerospace and defense markets.
Yeah look like Firefly, will be the next Orbital Sciencs-ATK... acquired by Northrop...
Eh, it could be worse, they could be acquired by Boeing...