Firefly Aerospace, Inc. announced its Alpha Flight 5 (FLTA005) mission, called Noise of Summer.

Launching from Firefly’s SLC-2 complex at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, Alpha FLTA005 supports Firefly’s Venture-Class Launch Services Demo 2 contract with NASA that serves to validate the capabilities of launch vehicles that support a new launch class and provide more access to space for small satellites and spacecraft. The mission will deploy the following eight payloads selected through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, providing U.S. educational institutions and nonprofits with low-cost access to space.

CatSat – University of Arizona: CatSat is a technology demonstration of an inflatable antenna for high-speed communications. After reaching low Earth orbit, CatSat’s antenna will deploy and inflate to a diameter of just over one-and-a-half feet to transmit high-definition Earth photos to X-band ground stations at approximately 50 megabits per second, more than 5 times faster than typical home internet speeds.

KUbeSat-1 ­­- University of Kansas: KUbeSat-1 will demonstrate a new method to measure the energy and species of primary cosmic rays hitting Earth utilizing a Cosmic Ray Detector. The payload will also utilize High-Altitude Calibration technology to research very high frequency signals generated by cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere.

MESAT1 – University of Maine: MESAT1 is a climate focused payload that will identify urban heat islands, determine concentration of phytoplankton in water bodies, and help predict harmful algal blooms. Four multispectral cameras on board will relay the data down to University of Maine’s ground station for further processing.

R5-S4 and R5-S2-2.0 – NASA’s Johnson Space Center: R5-S4 and R5-S2 will be the first in a line of R5 spacecrafts launched to orbit, featuring Rendezvous and Proximity Operations Fiducial AprilTags to solve the problem of relative navigation between spacecraft. R5-S4 will also demonstrate a “spacecraft license plate” with a small blinking light that continuously flashes a unique number that can be read with a small telescope on the ground to identify and better track satellites among tens of thousands of objects currently in orbit.

Serenity 3 – Teachers in Space: Licensed as an amateur radio broadcaster, Serenity 3 includes a suite of data sensors and a camera that will send data back to Earth and communicate with radios on the ground, allowing anyone with a ham radio to “talk” to Serenity. For details on communicating with and requesting photos from Serenity, visit www.TIS.org/Serenity-satellite.

SOC-i – University of Washington: Satellite for Optimal Control and Imaging (SOC-i) will test an algorithm aimed at supporting autonomous operations with constrained attitude guidance maneuvers computed in real-time aboard the spacecraft. The payload utilizes uses optimization-based attitude guidance methods to compute trajectories in real-time that meet a set of five constraints throughout the maneuvers.

TechEdSat-11 (TES-11) – NASA Ames Research Center: TES-11 will conduct several technology demonstrations, including an exo-brake with a deployable parachute-like device aimed at reducing CubeSat de-orbit times, and BrainStack-3, a graphics processing unit and neuromorphic processors that allow for artificial intelligence experiments in low Earth orbit. TES-11 is part of a series of collaborative missions called TechEdSat that pair university students with NASA researchers to evaluate new technologies for use in small satellites while providing student mentorship opportunities with engineers at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Courtesy of Firefly Aerospace, Inc.

Stats

Height: 29 m (95 ft)

Diameter: 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)

Mass: 54,000 kg (119,000 lb)

Stages: 2

The first flight of the Firefly Alpha carried various payloads as part of their DREAM mission. Due to an engine failure approximately 15 seconds after the launch, the rocket lost control at a transonic speed approximately two and a half minutes into flight which resulted in the activation of the flight termination system and loss of the vehicle.

The "To The Black" mission was the second flight of Alpha its first partially successful orbital launch, carrying educational payloads, including a hosted payload, Firefly Capsule 2. Alpha deployed 7 satellites, however, due to the lower-than-intended deployment orbit, most of the satellites re-entered before reaching their intended design life a week after launch.

Alpha is 100% manufactured in the USA and designed to be the most reliable small satellite launcher available. Alpha’s pump-fed, regeneratively-cooled engines use standard LOx/RP, and our avionics systems, such as the flight computer and communication system, employ COTS components with established flight heritage.

Modern advances in carbon composite materials are used to create strong, lightweight primary structures such as propellant tanks. Entirely manufactured and launched in the USA, we’re able to keep costs to a minimum while achieving unprecedented dependability.

Alpha utilizes well-established propulsion technology. Both stages use common designs: copper regen-cooled LOx/RP-1 thrust chambers, a simple tap-off cycle that drives single shaft turbopumps, nozzle-mounted turbine exhaust manifolds, and hydraulic actuators. Innovations in Firefly engines include our simple “Crossfire” injector, tap-off geometry, dual-mounted electrically actuated, trimmable propellant main valves, and ultra-compact horizontal turbopump mounting.

The upper stage engine, “Lightning,” includes a turbine-exhaust cooled refractory metal high area ratio nozzle extension.

The first stage “Reaver” engines feature simple single axis gimballing. Consistent with the overall Alpha vehicle design, cost and performance are traded and optimized in Lightning and Reaver components to provide the best payload performance value.

Firefly utilizes advanced carbon-fiber composites for the entire airframe of Alpha, including the state-of-the-art, linerless, cryogenic propellant tanks. Composite materials are ideally suited to launch vehicle structures due to their high strength, low density and tailorable material properties. This allows Firefly Alpha to lift heavier payloads than a similar metal rocket.

Firefly Avionics hardware utilizes a combination of custom designed state-of-the-art and Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) components.

Data Acquisition is accomplished using a rugged, modular Data Acquisition Chassis, which provides analog to digital conversion of all sensor data, and further packages the data and transmits to the Flight Computer via an onboard Ethernet network.

The Flight Computer incorporates all vehicle telemetry and transmits data along with video to various Earth ground stations along the flight trajectory, for the duration of the flight.

Caption: Firefly

Photo: Tom Cross for Supercluster

SLC-2W is being repurposed to launch the Firefly Alpha.

Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) is an active rocket launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA.

This launch complex consists of two launch pads. The East pad (SLC-2E) was used for Delta, Thor-Agena and Thorad launches between 1966 and 1972 and has since been demolished.

The West pad (SLC-2W) where Firefly will be launching from, was used for Delta, Thor-Agena and Delta II launches from 1966 until 2018, when the Delta II performed its last flight.

Photo Credit: Firefly Aerospace, Inc.