However, it is the United States which is in the lead. Today, no less than five American companies are committed to NASA for a total of 11 missions, aiming to transport up to fifty pieces of equipment to different locations on the lunar surface.
And Firefly is one of the biggest beneficiaries. The “Blue Ghost” mission entrusted by NASA is the first lunar mission – out of three – that the service provider will carry out on behalf of the American space agency. Beyond the construction of its own moon lander, the Texan company will have carried out and will carry out the operations from start to finish: the choice of the launcher, the loading of the ten pieces of scientific equipment to be embarked, the smooth running of the space flight, the ‘landing…
exceptional responsiveness
Thus, after takeoff, the space journey will last more than 45 days. Two hours of critical descent are planned to land in early March on the Sea of Crises plain, on the visible side of the Moon. There, the duration of the mission will be spread over a lunar day, the equivalent of 14 terrestrial days, and a few hours during the lunar night. “This unique landing site will allow scientific instruments to collect data on the moon’s regolith, geophysical characteristics and interactions of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetic field,” NASA further specifies.
How did the American agency select FireFly Aerospace? In just a few years, the Texan company has already built a solid reputation in the American space sector. Its ambition is to offer services in orbit through a whole range of spacecraft: mini-launcher, heavy launcher, orbit transport vessel, lander, etc.
With more than 700 employees, the company definitely made a lasting impression in September 2023. It took up the challenge of the US Air Force, which wanted to test the responsiveness of its service providers in the event of an emergency and get a launcher off the ground within 24 hours. in order to put a minisatellite into orbit! Since this success, Firefly has been awarded contracts with institutional and private players.
It attracts investors. Last November, it raised $175 million, which is in addition to the $300 million already raised in 2023. The company says it is valued at more than $2 billion.
14 selected providers
Last August, to move up a gear, the company recruited its new CEO, Jason Kim, who has worked with major contractors in the sector (Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, etc.) and the US Air Force. She also convinced one of NASA’s former bosses, James Bridenstine, to strengthen his advisory council.
Firefly Aerospace is one of 13 companies selected by NASA as part of its CPLS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program to transfer payloads to the moon entrusted to the private sector. This initiative was launched in 2018 with the idea that with the democratization of space technologies, it is now possible to call on the private sector to transfer equipment and technologies to the moon.
The agency had already used private actors to transport astronauts to the space station, which it entrusted to SpaceX and Boeing. In both cases, the agency only positions itself as a buyer and pays for a service hoping to benefit from better prices thanks to competition between its service providers.
To purchase its missions to the moon, it has a budget of $2.6 billion until 2028, or around $260 million per year. Given the ambition of the lunar program, NASA has selected many more service providers this time. In total, 14 were selected. Nine in the first wave in 2018 (Astrobotic Technology, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Lockheed Martin Space, Masten Space Systems, Moon Express, Orbit Beyond), and five additional in the second wave a year later later (Blue Origin, Ceres Robotics, Sierra Nevada, Space X, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems).
In addition to “Ghost Blue”, NASA is planning another mission – CPLS, in 2025 – led by the company Intuitive Machine, then approximately two per year until 2028. Among the best positioned, Firefly Aeropace should fly several times towards the moon. Last December, NASA awarded it its third contract for a lunar mission for an amount of $179 million. In 2028, a rover and six scientific instruments will be placed on the Gruithuisen dome… never before explored.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
