Company - Firefly Aerospace
Product/Service - Blue Ghost
- Classification
- Cargo Transportation & Landers
- Category
- Commercial Lunar Lander
Transport Service (LEO-Moon)
Commercial Lander
- Fields
- Moon
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2024
Blue Ghost
In March 2023, NASA Picks Firefly Aerospace for Robotic Delivery to Far Side of Moon.
- To carry multiple payloads to the far side of the Moon including a satellite to orbit that area, NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas.
- The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA.
- The contract award, for just under $112 million, is a commercial lunar delivery targeted to launch in 2026 through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative, and part of the agency’s Artemis program.
Status Comment / Notes
Product/Service - Elytra, SUV (Space Utility Vehicle)
- Classification
- In-Space Transportation
- Category
- Space Tug
Transport Service (LEO-GEO)
Orbital Transportation
- Fields
- Transport Service (In-Space)
- Status
- Development
- First launch
- 2024
Elytra Dawn: Rapid On-Orbit Services
Elytra Dusk: Responsive On-Orbit Utilities
Elytra Dark: Persistent Orbital Infrastructure
Space Utility Vehicle (SUV) - Previous name
DARPA LunA-10 Program Study, 2023-2024
News
- Firefly Aerospace Announces Strategic Acquisition of Spaceflight Inc. to Bolster On-Orbit Services (2023-06-08).
- Firefly debuts Elytra orbital transfer vehicle line, with first mission planned for 2024 (2023-08-08).
- The first Elytra will launch next year as part of an agreement with space logistics company Xtenti, who will use its small satellite dispenser with the orbital vehicle. That mission, which will launch next year, is part of a contract with the NRO to demonstrate the dispenser’s rapid response capabilities on-orbit.
- After launching on Alpha, Elytra will use the “Flight Agnostic Non-interfering, Tunable Mass Rideshare Dispenser Equipment” (Fantm-Ride) dispenser to deploy commercial payloads in sun synchronous orbit; then, the vehicle will perform an on-orbit maneuver and wait, essentially, until the NRO tells it to deploy its government payloads.
- Firefly Aerospace Announces Agreement with Klepsydra Technologies to Demonstrate Edge Computing in Space, 2024-04-09.
- By serving as an edge computing platform in space, Elytra is equipped to support a variety of hosted software applications with real-time data processing on orbit.
- Elytra’s edge compute platform interfaces directly with the vehicle’s core avionics with the ability to receive payload, sensor, and camera telemetry data. The platform runs software applications as a service, enabling rapid data processing on orbit before downlinking the post-processed data of interest to customers.
- As part of Elytra Mission 1, Klepsydra Technologies will utilize Elytra’s edge compute platform to further test and validate its AI navigation application.
Status Comment / Notes
Created: 2023-03-05
Updated: 2024-07-09
News, Research, Projects and Patents
| Title | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mission possible – Staying on the Moo | Article | 2022-10-13 | |
| NASA Selects Firefly Aerospace for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023 | News | 2021-02-04 | > NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace approximately $93.3 million to deliver a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the Moon in 2023. |
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