Rocket Startup Without a Launch Gets NASA Award for Lunar Lander
After filing for bankruptcy five years ago, Firefly Aerospace is pushing to join the race to the moon.
A rendering of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander.
Source: Firefly AerospaceFive years ago, Tom Markusic’s rocket company Firefly Space Systems filed for bankruptcy. This week, Tom Markusic’s rocket company Firefly Aerospace announced that it will aim for its first launch in mid-March, try to raise $350 million in capital and attempt a Moon landing on behalf of NASA in 2023.
Based just outside of Austin, Tex., Firefly has been trying to carve out a unique path in the suddenly frenetic commercial space industry. The company does not make huge rockets like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, nor does it make small rockets like Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab, and a number of other start-ups. Its first rocket — called Alpha — can carry about 2,200 pounds of cargo into orbit for $15 million per flight, making it the space transport equivalent of a minivan in a landscape so far dominated by 18-wheelers and sedans.