Amsterdam – Northrop Grumman invests $ 50 million in Firefly Aerospace to continue the development of a launch vehicle to an average name with a new name.
The companies announced on May 29 that Northrop would invest $ 50 million in Firefly, joining A start -up of $ 175 million that Firefly announced in November. This tour estimated Firefly at more than $ 2 billion.
The investment will go to the development of a launch vehicle formerly known as MLV and now known as the Eclipse. The middle class launch vehicle is designed to place up to 16,300 kilograms in low terrestrial orbit.
“Eclipse gives customers the good balance between payload and affordability,” said Wendy Williams, Vice-President and Managing Director of Northrop Grumman launch and defense systems, in a press release.
Eclipse is based on the partnership existing between Firefly and Northrop on the Antares 330, which replaces the first Ukrainian stage of the previous antaires variant by a previous one by Firefly. Eclipse will use the same first step developed by Firefly with a new higher step and a larger payload fairing.
“Firefly is incredibly grateful for the investment of Northrop Grumman which more solidifies our first partnership of its kind to build the first stage of Antares 330 and develop jointly Eclipse,” said Jason Kim, Managing Director of Firefly, in a press release.
While Annities 330 is an temporary vehicle mainly intended to launch cygnus cargo vehicles at the international space station, Firefly targets wider uses for the eclipse, including the national security space. This would be done thanks to the phase 3 contract of the launch of the national security space (NSSL), whose track 1 is intended for more recent vehicles which do not have the performance to carry out all the national security missions in the contract.
“With a capacity of 16 tonnes to orbit, Eclipse is an ideal point for programs like NSSL Lane 1,” said Kim.
The American space force can be over-ramp of new vehicles on track 1, and did it in March when he added Nova Medium-Lift vehicles from Neutron and Stoke Space from Space and Stoke Space under development. The Space Force said that it would look for proposals to add additional vehicles to the contract at the start of the 2026 fiscal year.
The companies have provided some additional details on the state of the development of Eclipse, noting the continuous tests of the Miranda engine which will be used in its first step as well as the development of other flight equipment for the rocket. The first launch of Eclipse is scheduled for early 2026 from Wallops Island, Virginia.
Northrop sees the growth in launch, not NASA
The announcement of the investment took place one day after the director general of Northop Grumman, Kathy Warden, spoke to Bernstein 41st Annual conference of strategic decisions. She did not mention the investment or the work in progress with Firefly, but said that the company had seen growth opportunities at launch since its work by providing boosters of solid rockets for Vulcan Centaur de United Launch Alliance.
“Our space activity was mostly for the United States government. There is an opportunity for international expansion in space, which would be growth in advance. He was not a key contributor until this time, “she said.
A space segment where the company does not expect growth is its work with NASA, “depending on what we hear about NASA budgets,” she said. “But, this is a relatively small part of our space portfolio today.”
This portfolio includes the supply of the two solid rocket boosters for the space launch system and the halo module for the lunar gateway, as well as Cygnus cargo missions for the ISS. The “lean budget” published in early May by the White House would cancel the bridge and put an end to the SLS after the Artemis 3 mission, while reducing the ISS operating budget.
“It is not that it is a weak priority,” she said about the work of the company’s NASA, “but it was a relatively small part of our portfolio, and we expect me to say, which it will not be a growth engine for us. So, in this regard, this is not an area in which we will invest in considerably. ”
“NASA has an important mission,” she added. “It simply will not be as recalled in the predictable future, depending on what we hear.”
