Firefly Aerospace has received a huge influx of financing and is aiming to return to flight this spring at Vandenberg Space Force Base, less than a year after its first Alpha rocket liftoff ended in a fireball.
AE Industrial Partners LP, a U.S-based private equity firm, announced that it led a $75 million Series B investment in Texas-based Firefly Aerospace.
The Series B investment will support Firefly’s next stage of growth by providing capital for future Alpha flights, the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Program and more.
“Having recently notched some significant milestones, the company is at an inflection point, and our investments will allow Firefly to take advantage of the significant opportunities ahead. We look forward to partnering with the Firefly team at such an exciting time for space transportation,” said Kirk Konert, a partner at AEI.
Firefly aims to build affordable rockets for carrying small to medium payloads into space.
“AE Industrial’s ownership marks a new, exciting chapter for Firefly,” said Tom Markusic, Firefly’s CEO. “These investments allow Firefly to build on the momentum from last year’s financing and better position us for future growth. We’re eager to work with the AEI team and benefit from their industry and financial markets experience.”
Firefly’s maiden Alpha rocket launch occurred in September from Vandenberg, but had a fiery and early ending.
Firefly representatives said the second vehicle recently completed acceptance testing of both stages and will be ready for launch in the next few months.
In addition to prepping the rocket, Firefly has been dealing with other issues, too.
The private equity firm has completed its previously reported acquisition of Noosphere Venture Partners LP’s stake in Firefly. The transaction values Firefly above its May 2021 Series A valuation of more than $1 billion, according to the news release.
The deal resolves reported concerns about the involvement of Noosphere, led by a Ukrainian-borne investor. In December, those concerns led to restrictions on Firefly operations at Vandenberg, according to Space News.
“With the closing of the transaction, Firefly looks forward to resuming its government relationships and expects to have a second launch of Alpha in the second quarter of 2022,” the announcement Tuesday said.
Meanwhile, Firefly crews have worked to ready for their second Alpha liftoff, possibly as a soon as May.
“The Firefly team is laser-focused on reaching orbit this year,” the announcement said. “With the successful stage 2 hotfire today, both stages of our flight 2 Alpha vehicle have now completed acceptance testing and are ready for flight. See you on the pad.”
A review of the data after the inaugural Alpha launch in early September pinpointed an engine that stopped working as the problem that doomed the flight, Firefly officials said days after failure.
“About 15 seconds into the flight, engine 2 (there are four Reaver engines on the first stage) shut down,” Firefly officials added. “It was an uneventful shutdown — the engine didn’t fail — the propellant main valves on the engine simply closed and thrust terminated from engine 2.”
Still, with three engines firing, the rocket continued to climb and maintain control for about 145 seconds. The nominal first-stage burn duration is about 165 seconds.
Because of one missing engine — and the lack of thrust from that engine — the rocket’s climb rate was slow and it struggled to maintain control, Firefly said.
Alpha was able to compensate at subsonic speeds, but as it moved into supersonic flight, “where control is most challenging,” the three-engine thrust vector control was insufficient. That caused the vehicle to tumble out of control, with video showing the rocket completing a flip.
Western Range crews at Vandenberg issued the command to terminate the flight, causing the dramatic explosion seen around the Central Coast.
It marked the first time in two decades that Vandenberg personnel had issued a destruct command to terminate an errant rocket or missile, base officials have said.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.