The company Firefly Aerospace conducted a static burn of the first stage of the promising Alpha launch vehicle. Its start may take place soon.
On the eve of the first launch of the Alpha rocket, scheduled for September, the American-Ukrainian company Firefly Aerospace successfully conducted fire tests. The tests took place on August 18 at the Vandenberg base, located in California. During them, the engines of the first stage worked for 15 seconds.
It is assumed that the Firefly Alpha oxygen-kerosene rocket can be used to launch cargo weighing up to 1000 kilograms into low Earth orbit (LEO).
Firefly Alpha Tests / ©Firefly
Alpha is just the first step in the company's program. In the future, it wants to create a more powerful Beta carrier, which should output up to 4,000 kilograms of cargo to the LEO.
Earlier it became known that Firefly Aerospace signed an agreement with SpaceX to launch a lunar lander under the Artemis program. According to him, the Falcon 9 launch vehicle will be used to launch the Blue Ghost unmanned vehicle.
Blue Ghost
Image source: Firefly Aerospace
Firefly Alpha was founded in 2014. After bankruptcy, it was acquired by Ukrainian entrepreneur Maxim Polyakov. The headquarters is located in Texas.
