Also, don't know if this is new as I may have simply missed it previously (it's not on https://firefly.com/launch-beta/ anyway), but the pic also shows Beta sporting New Glenn style fins.
What's really interesting is that the fins aren't positioned like they are on the New Glenn. Look closely at the front and back edges of the fins. These fins are on this side of the booster, and are positioned as if there's a third big fin on the back side. I'm not sure why you would do this, but it's interesting.
The biggest and yet most subtle change between this and the other Beta renders is the engines; there looks to be at least six, possibly seven engines on the first stage, while previous renders had five. Hard to say if the rocket got bigger or the engine got smaller, but I suspect the latter.
Their website quotes 8000 kg to LEO for Beta, while the slides have "<= 10,000 kg" to LEO, so I think the rocket got an upgrade to accommodate both reusability and heavier constellation payloads.
I'm wondering how much of this is throwing numbers on a slide, so they can say "Us, too!" after Neutron and Terran R.
Quote from: GreenShrike on 07/09/2021 10:39 pmI'm wondering how much of this is throwing numbers on a slide, so they can say "Us, too!" after Neutron and Terran R.A reasonable question certainly, but I'll point out that single core, reusable beta was announced before either of those vehicles- looking back through forum posts I see it noted around october 2019. Perhaps more interesting, at the time, people assumed that the announcement, since it was made around some aerojet rocketdyne collaboration press release, implied that Firefly was buying AR1. Since AR1 is not the right size for 6-7 of them on a 10,000kg launch vehicle, this does not appear to be the case.
We are at over 400 full time employees and hiring many more! Check out our careers page: firefly.com/careers/!
https://twitter.com/firefly_space/status/1421222398918107137QuoteWe are at over 400 full time employees and hiring many more! Check out our careers page: firefly.com/careers/!
Firefly to Become the Premier Supplier of Rocket Engines and Spaceflight Components for the Emerging New Space IndustryCEDAR PARK, Texas – August 6, 2021 – Firefly Aerospace, Inc., a leading provider of economical and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, today announced the launch of a new line of business dedicated to supplying rocket engines and other spaceflight components to the emerging New Space industry. “Our goal with this line of business is to become the Tier 1 supplier of components to the New Space industry,” said Tom Markusic, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “Our component sales business model has inherent advantages over businesses that focus on a single (e.g., rocket engines) or narrow range (e.g., valves) of components.”The development of this new line of business was born out of the overwhelming interest in Firefly’s technology and the need, within the New Space industry, to shorten the time to market and have a reliable and consistent sourcing partner for the components necessary to develop spaceflight vehicles. Firefly is unique in that it not only builds and operates spaceflight vehicles, such as its Alpha rocket, but will also become a premier sourcing partner for other New Space companies to procure the components that are used in those vehicles, helping to lower the barrier to entry in the New Space market. Through the manufacture of their own vehicles, Firefly will establish flight heritage for all components before supplying them to other companies, providing customers with high confidence and low risk, as the components will have been fully proven in spaceflight missions, not just ground tests. The component business plan also has the advantage that there is automatically a core customer – Firefly’s spacecraft and launch vehicle divisions. As the company adds external customers, it will allow them to manufacture increasingly larger numbers of the same components, creating economies of scale for production efficiency and cost reduction.“We initially focused external sales on Firefly’s rocket engines, which we believe provide the best cost/performance in the industry. Initial demand has been strong, with external orders already exceeding the quantity of engines that Firefly was building for use on its own launch vehicle, Alpha,” said Eric Salwan, CRO of Firefly. He added “Firefly also has strong expertise in the design and production of carbon fiber composite structures. We are currently in active negotiations to supply composite components, such as composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV), to external customers.”While Firefly is launching this line of business based on the components developed in-house, it plans to expand its offerings to include a number of components developed by their partners, creating a New Space component marketplace with a complete line of products allowing companies to procure and have components delivered from a single source.
I wonder if this is an indicator on their business health. Alpha has been at Vandenberg not launching for 3 quarters now and their racking up costs - this could just be a push to get any revenue they can find to keep them going until they can clear whatever hurdles are stopping Alpha.Who would their customers be? I don't think they could sell to outside the US, but who in the US is buying engines with a tricky ITAR situation? The only ones that come to mind are Launcher (sub-components) and Skyrora (full engines?) since they all have the same development facility in Ukraine.
Quote from: ParabolicSnark on 08/06/2021 07:15 pmI wonder if this is an indicator on their business health. Alpha has been at Vandenberg not launching for 3 quarters now and their racking up costs - this could just be a push to get any revenue they can find to keep them going until they can clear whatever hurdles are stopping Alpha.Who would their customers be? I don't think they could sell to outside the US, but who in the US is buying engines with a tricky ITAR situation? The only ones that come to mind are Launcher (sub-components) and Skyrora (full engines?) since they all have the same development facility in Ukraine.like Rocket Lab, Firefly and several others bureaucracy is responsible. NASA hasn't certified their AFTS (which are required for all new launchers) so other agencies cannot authorize them to launch from US installations. They can static fire all they want and do other testing but they cannot leave the ground.
It's also interesting that Firefly was considering buying engines from Aerojet Rocketdyne at one point. Now they are trying to be the supplier of engines.
