Firefly hires former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineer as COO

WASHINGTON – Firefly Aerospace has hired a former engineer from SpaceX and Blue Origin as the new COO to guide the company’s transition from development to production, although the exact date of the company’s first launch remains. uncertain.

Firefly announced on August 17 that Lauren Lyons would become chief operating officer of the company, based in Cedar Park, Texas. Lyons spent several years at SpaceX on the Dragon, Falcon 9, and Starlink programs, and most recently he was a chief systems engineer in the Advanced Concepts group at Blue Origin. At SpaceX, she has also appeared regularly on the company’s webcasts, including for the Demo-2 commercial crew test flight in 2020.

The company said Lyons would focus on “Firefly’s transition from an R&D environment to a production environment” for its small Alpha launcher, Space Utility Vehicle tug, and Blue Ghost lunar lander.

“Firefly is entering a pivotal and exciting phase in its growth,” Lyons said in the statement. “I am excited to take on the challenge of leading the enterprise infrastructure scale efforts to support rapid growth, high execution rate, and exceptional value and service to our customers.

Firefly is also entering the component business. The company said it would offer the engines it developed for its Alpha vehicle to other customers. “Initial demand has been strong, with external orders already exceeding the amount of engines Firefly was building for its own launcher, Alpha,” said Eric Salwan, Firefly’s chief revenue officer, in an Aug. 6 statement, but he l ‘did. do not disclose the number of engines sold or the customers for them.

These engines have not yet taken off on Alpha or any other launch vehicle. Firefly shipped the first Alpha rocket to Vandenberg Space Force Base earlier this year and performed pad testing, but did not disclose a date for its launch. Firefly spokesperson Kim Jennett said the company is not releasing a launch date but “things are getting closer”.

In a July 7 conference call hosted by the Future In Space Operations group, Salwan said the company is waiting for a single unspecified component for its flight termination system. “Once we have that, we’ll go into the launch campaign and hopefully we’ll launch here in the next couple of months.”