Firefly to establish rocket plant and launch site in Florida

WASHINGTON – Firefly Aerospace announced the signing of an agreement with state and federal agencies on February 22 for the construction of a new rocket production and launch facility from Space Coast, Florida.

The Texas-based company has announced it has reached an agreement with Space Florida, the state's space development agency, to fund the development of a launch site at the Space Launch Complex (SLC) 20 from Cape Canaveral Air Base and a launcher factory located just outside the Kennedy Space Center gates. The company also received a "statement of capability" from the 45th Air Force Space Wing US regarding the use of the SLC-20.

Under the Space Florida agreement, the state will double Firefly's infrastructure investments to $ 18.9 million. The company announced plans to invest $ 52 million in plant and launch site development, creating more than 200 jobs.

"From this site, Firefly will execute its business plan, which is to dominate the medium-to-small space flight market," said Tom Markusic, chief executive of Firefly, at a ceremony held at the SLC-20 ceremony.

Firefly is currently working on its first vehicle, Alpha, capable of placing a metric ton in low Earth orbit. The vehicle's initial production will take place at the company's Texas facility, with an initial launch from a former Delta 2 pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, scheduled for December.

However, the company has considered building a separate production site to produce the Alpha in greater numbers. "Our goal is to carry out 24 launches a year, we can carry out six rockets a year in our Texas facilities, so we are actively looking to build a large-scale mbad production facility," said Markusic. of a press conference. International Conference on Space Development in Los Angeles in May 2018.

Even then, Florida was a favorite for the plant. "Florida is interesting, but we are also looking at others," he said. "Obviously, being near a launch site would be a good thing.The most likely scenario is probably the launch of Florida and the East Coast, but we keep an open mind."

The new plant will be able to produce 24 Alpha vehicles a year, Firefly said in its announcement announcing the facility. The company did not specify the date of opening of the plant, but it hoped to start from SLC-20 in 2021.

The 180,000-square-foot factory will be located in Exploration Park, an activity park located within the Kennedy Space Center compound, but outside the center's security perimeter. The same area also hosts a Blue Origin plant where the company will produce its large New Glenn rocket, as well as a factory where OneWeb Satellites, the joint venture of OneWeb and Airbus, will build satellites for the OneWeb broadband constellation.

Firefly is also the last company to have launched launch operations at an inactive Cape launch site. On January 17, Relativity announced its intention to launch its small launch vehicle, Terran 1, from Launch Complex 16 in Cape Canaveral, just south of SLC-20. The Relativity launch vehicle, capable of placing up to 1,250 kilograms in a low Earth orbit, is expected to make its first launch from this site in late 2020.

Blue Origin is redeveloping Launch Complex 36 for the New Glenn launches. A first launch is scheduled for 2021. In an interview with SpaceNews at a Wings Club luncheon in New York on February 20, company founder Jeff Bezos said $ 1 billion for manufacturing and launching of New Glenn.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to cover all aspects of the space industry.