Cedar Park-Based Firefly Aerospace Signs Launch Contract

CEDAR PARK, TX — Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace has signed a multi-year agreement with another spacecraft firm that includes four launches next year, officials announced Wednesday.

Firefly Aerospace, a leading provider of economical and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, signed the agreement with Adaptive Launch Solutions, a designer of multi-manifest hardware, avionics and sequencer and an integrator of single and multiple satellites. The pact calls for four Alpha launches beginning in 2021.

“Small launch provides small satellite owners right sized, right priced access to space meeting their program and business goals,” said Phil Smith, CEO of ALS. “Our agreement with Firefly Aerospace will provide the flexibility and responsiveness demanded by government operators and commercial owners."

Under the agreement, Smith added, Adaptive Launch Solutions is the launch service provider for Alpha Flights 2 and 3, planned for launch in 2021. "These two missions offer our customers the earliest commercial launch opportunities on Firefly Alpha," Smith said. "ALS brings to our Firefly partnership decades of launch integration experience, most recently utilized on the United States Space Force (USSF) Launch Manifest Systems Integrator (LMSI) program. The LMSI program team delivers capabilities and integration approaches that establish U.S. government enterprise-wide capability for small satellite delivery to space.”

Firefly CEO Tom Markusic explained the agreement further: “Firefly is very pleased to welcome ALS as a customer and partner for missions in 2021 and beyond. In addition to providing launch services to ALS, Firefly plans to leverage ALS’ unique primary and secondary payload integration capability, processing experience and proprietary hardware for current and future launch campaigns.”

Firefly is preparing for the first launch of the Alpha vehicle in early 2021, officials said. Acceptance testing of both Stage 1 and Stage 2 for Flight 1 have been completed, officials added, and Firefly’s Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2 launch site is nearing completion and activation.

“Firefly’s agreement with ALS will allow us to pursue strategic opportunities to support Firefly on both our Western and Eastern ranges,” Firefly’s Chief Revenue Officer Bradley Schneider said. “Firefly has now nearly filled our 2021 launch manifest and is focused on finalizing our 2022 flight opportunities. The demand for access to Low Earth Orbit is rapidly expanding, and Firefly will provide the most dependable and economical small launch vehicles in the industry.”