Alpha flight stages are arriving at our launch site. Things are getting serious now!
The first stage for Firefly Aerospace’s maiden Alpha rocket launch arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday evening and is now in the company’s vehicle assembly building:
Our CA and TX based crews are excited to have our first stage in Vandenberg, getting ready for flight! Every day the Firefly crew is putting in the monumental effort required to push through the challenges involved in getting to space. Go Team! #Firefly #MakingSpaceForEveryone
Shiny!
There are eight lugs around the bottom of this booster, four parallel sets of two. They can't be leg attach points?
ICYMI: Alpha Flight 1 Stage 1 arriving at Vandenberg Air Force Base. #Firefly #MakingSpaceForEveryone
The Firefly team is busy integrating DREAM payloads for the maiden Alpha launch. PICOBUS-1 is an 8P Pocketqube deployer to be used to deploy 6 picosatellites into space and test the world’s first fully free and open source telecommunications constellation.
The colonel in charge of the Western Range mentioned the Firefly flight being in January.
The first launch of Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha small launch vehicle, from a launch complex formerly used by the Delta 2 [SLC-2W], is now expected in January, he said. The company had been targeting a launch before the end of the year.
Firefly has completed acceptance testing of Alpha Flight 1 Stage 2! The stage will now ship to Vandenberg and be integrated with Stage 1 in preparation for the first Alpha launch!
https://twitter.com/firefly_space/status/1334199542548488193?s=21
Benchmark's Starling demonstrator satellite BSS1 is shown being integrated to @Firefly_Space's deployer in preparation of the upcoming Alpha launch. Our team is eager to showcase our Starling warm gas propulsion system and the underlying On-Demand Pressurization System (ODPS).
Integration of @BenchmarkSpace's Starling demonstrator satellite BSS1 is complete!
The purpose of the Alpha Flight 1 mission (serialized FLTA001) is to demonstrate the viability of Alpha as a small-satellite launcher, and to demonstrate that Firefly Aerospace is ready to support commercial, small satellite launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
