Last night, Firefly Aerospace successfully launched its Alpha rocket on the “Noise of Summer” mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The launch, which occurred at 9:04 PM PDT, marked a significant milestone for Firefly as it successfully deployed eight CubeSats into low Earth orbit. The payloads included CubeSats from various institutions such as the University of Maine, University of Arizona, NASA Johnson Space Center, and University of Washington. Notable satellites include the CatSat, which will demonstrate an inflatable antenna for high-speed communications, and the SOC-i, a technology demonstration mission focusing on advanced attitude control.

Space assets are the most important enabler, and most significant vulnerability, in a superpower conflict. The U.S. government knows it and It’s why we have the Space Force and organizations like SDA. But while we are starting to scale and support a surging New Space industry China can, in some respects, surge faster:

China is growing its military capabilities in space at a “breathtaking pace” to counter the American satellites in orbit and improve its ability to monitor and target forces on Earth, according to the head of the US Space Command.

America’s top strategic challenger is seeking to develop advanced space weaponry and making advances in satellite meteorology, human spaceflight and robotic space exploration, General Stephen Whiting said during a hearing Thursday of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

We still hold the advantage but we could lose it surprisingly quickly if we don’t properly prioritize space. The coming decades will require the same level of focus and investment in the domain that we have poured into naval and air power. The time to build the infrastructure for rapid industrialized production and delivery of space assets is now. Thankfully we’re doing that with responsive space initiatives at companies like Rocket Lab, Terran Orbital, and Firefly. It’s a start, but we will need to do more.

Sad news from Firefly Aerospace:

Today, Firefly’s Alpha launch had a successful liftoff & progressed seamlessly through each stage of flight, including MECO, stage separation, fairing separation and the first SECO. Alpha’s scheduled stage 2 engine relight did not deliver the payload to its precise target orbit. Communications to the spacecraft has been established and mission operations are now underway.

All might not be lost though. With the satellite stable, and comms established, perhaps there’s still room for the customer (Lockheed-Martin) to realize some (or all) of the mission goals. We’ll see.

Firefly Aerospace’s “Fly the Lightning” launch is slated for 9:32am PST. The NASASpaceflight team is streaming it now.

The Firefly Aerospace team finally got “the call”:

Firefly Aerospace successfully launched the U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS NOX mission with 24-hour notice, demonstrating a critical capability for the United States to rapidly respond to on-orbit needs during a conflict or in response to a national security threat.

Upon receiving the notice to launch and orbit requirements from the Space Force, Firefly completed all final mission preparations, including trajectory software updates, payload encapsulation, transport to the launch pad, mating to Alpha, and fueling, within 24 hours. Alpha then launched at the first available window.

The mission set a new Tactically Responsive Space record:

The previous responsive space launch record was 21 days, set on June 13, 2021, with SSC’s launch of TacRL-2. VICTUS NOX and TacRL-2 are the first two operational demonstrations

I don’t think this new record will stand long. National security concerns are going to push this number down again and again. With the DoD’s financial banking, satellite and launch vehicle production advancements, production cost decreases, and some creative staging an insane cadence will soon be within reach.

TheSpaceBucket looks at Firefly Aerospace’s recently announced Elytra vehicle lineup:

A couple of interesting tweets from Aria Alamalhodaei looks at TechCrunch:

Soooo…according to filings it looks like @Firefly_Space is planning two unannounced missions— one called ‘FANTM Ride’ and another called ‘Tantrum.’ Firefly declined to comment.

I learned this after publishing a story about how the company’s NASA launch was pushed to August — busy summer for Firefly

That story details upcoming USSF responsive launch and NASA VCLS demos. It all seems very ambitious given their track record but space entrepreneurs have never been short of that:

Firefly launched Alpha for the first time in September 2021. That launch ended in failure due to a premature shutdown of one of the first-stage engines. Thirteen months later, the company successfully reached orbit, though the payloads on board were inserted into a lower orbit than planned. As a result, those payloads reentered Earth’s atmosphere after a few days.