Author Topic: Firefly Space : Company and Development General Thread  (Read 451472 times)

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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New agreement with Northrop (to develop new Antares first stage) is a big win for Firefly.

New thread: Northrop teams with Firefly
« Last Edit: 08/08/2022 05:28 pm by FutureSpaceTourist »

Offline Daniels30

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The Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster.

https://firefly.com/beta/
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Offline Mackilroy

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Interesting. Seems like a lifeline for Firefly.

Offline russianhalo117

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The Antares 330 uses the new updated Beta booster.

https://firefly.com/beta/
AFAIU a derivative of the Beta booster to sort NG's needs.

Online trimeta

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The 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.

Offline russianhalo117

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The 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.
« Last Edit: 08/08/2022 07:40 pm by russianhalo117 »

Online trimeta

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The 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.

Offline TrevorMonty

The 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.
Beta will hopefully fly lot more than Antares so best not compromise its design to save on booster tooling costs.

Beta will fly from new pad so doesn't need to be limited by Antares infrastructure. While two boosters may have different dimensions, all internal equipment will be same and that is expensive stuff to design and build.
« Last Edit: 08/08/2022 10:01 pm by zubenelgenubi »

Offline su27k

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Everybody is upsizing their LVs:

https://twitter.com/Alexphysics13/status/1556691605154824192

Quote
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.

Offline ethan829

An update on Alpha flight 2 from CNBC:
Quote
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.

Offline Rondaz

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But the plan faced a gap in Cygnus cargo spacecraft launches to the ISS, so Northrop Grumman bought three Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX to keep flying every six months.

2x Antares 230+➡️3x Falcon 9➡️Antares 330 debut..

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1557015062950322176

Offline rocketfan86

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Looks like they pushed out some new renders that line up with what NG had (but flipped raceways? opposite view I guess), and Beta is now officially seemingly being dubbed MLV.

https://firefly.com/beta/

Offline TrevorMonty

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.

Online trimeta

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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.

Yeah, their so-called "Space Utility Vehicle" has its own page and user's guide: https://firefly.com/suv/

Offline edzieba

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SUV user's guide attached.

Offline ParabolicSnark

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Firefly has completed its search for its new CEO.

https://spacenews.com/firefly-hires-new-ceo-ahead-of-second-launch/
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/firefly-aerospace-names-bill-weber-as-ceo-301616142.html

Quote
[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.

XLA: another cybersecurity firm
Kaseman: counter-terroris(m training and security services (and whos website domain is available for purchase))
GTSI: Government IT firm since sold to UNICOM Government

That doesn't exactly give me a lot of warm fuzzies for any continued innovation. Seems like a hire to keep the ship afloat for a future acquisition

Offline Tywin

Yeah look like Firefly, will be the next Orbital Sciencs-ATK... acquired by Northrop...
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Offline Asteroza

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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...

Offline TrevorMonty

Yeah look like Firefly, will be the next Orbital Sciencs-ATK... acquired by Northrop...
Likely outcome as AE Industrial Partners (AEI) will be looking for exit strategy. NG are serious about staying in launch industry given effort they put into Omega and replacing Antares twice now.


Yeah look like Firefly, will be the next Orbital Sciencs-ATK... acquired by Northrop...

Perhaps we should be surprised that in the last 6 months or so of this "1-ton launcher race", the big boys have stepped in. I mean, when the Firefly-NG deal is taken together with how heavily Lockheed Martin is invested in ABL, and the ridiculous amounts of investment money Relativity keeps raking in from somewhere, it suddenly all looks like a bit of a proxy war. And it definitely seem that way last year.


Eh, it could be worse, they could be acquired by Boeing...

You joke, but between LM and NG's interest in this part of the market, and Boeing being so abysmal lately, I think we should actually count our blessings.
Wait, ∆V? This site will accept the ∆ symbol? How many times have I written out the word "delta" for no reason?

 

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