WASHINGTON – Three small launch vehicle developers won a combined $ 16.7 million in a NASA deal as part of an effort to support the development of new launch vehicles.
Astra Space, Firefly Aerospace and Relativity Space won contracts through NASA’s Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) 2 program, the agency said in December. 11 was announced. The companies will launch cubesets provided by NASA on that mission, with the necessary launches by the end of June 2022.
In a request for proposals issued in July, the agency sought proposals for two specific types of missions. One, called Mission One, will have a dedicated launch of 30 kilograms of cubes in a mid-orbit of 500 kilometers. The other, Mission Two, will launch 75 kilograms of cubes into a 550-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit and 20 kilograms into a similar orbit, but at least 10 degrees earlier in the aircraft.
Astra received a contract worth 3. 93.9 million, which the company confirmed for Mission One. Firefly, through its government services subsidiary Firefly Black, received a 9. 8.98 million contract for Mission Two. Relativity received a contract worth million 3.0 million, but did not disclose in the statement what class of mission it was for. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
None of the three companies have yet put a payload into orbit. Astra attempted its first orbital launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island in September, but had an engine shutdown due to a guidance system problem on the rocket, which caused the rocket to crash near the launch site.
Astra is currently in the launch campaign for its Rocket 2.3 vehicle at Kodak. Due to bad weather, the company postponed its launch attempt on December 11, and said that its next launch attempt would not be earlier than December 14.
Firefly is preparing for the first launch of its alpha rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch is now expected to take place in the first quarter of 2021, the company said in a statement on its VCLS2 agreement.
Relativity is currently developing its Terron 1 rocket, expected to make its first launch in late 2021, the company announced last month when it raised 500 500 million in Series D funding rounds.
The agreement follows NASA’s original VCLS program, launched in 2015 to support small launch kingdoms. It contracted Firefly Space Systems, Rocket Lab and Virgin Galactic to launch NASA-sponsored cubesets.
Rocket Lab conducted its VCLS mission in December 2018, launching 10 Cubets sets for NASA. Firefly Space lost its contract in 2016 when the company filed for bankruptcy. The company’s assets were acquired and the company restructured in 2017 as Firefly Aerospace.
Virgin Galactic launched its launcher air launch program in a separate company, Virgin Orbit, which now has a VCLS agreement. The company plans to fly the mission on December 19th, which includes 10 NASA-sponsored cube sets.
However, Virgin Orbit announced the end of December 12th He was postponing preparations for the launch The day after the COVID-19 contract tracing “led to a new batch of precautionary quarantine.” The company said it no longer has enough staff to proceed prudently and safely from the pre-launch operation and so preparations for the wet dress rehearsal have stalled due to pre-launch efforts.
“Given the time frame associated with accurate Covid-19 test results, this will have an impact on our launch schedule,” the company said. “We are now evaluating that impact. We will be ready for the flight soon, but the health of our team and their families has been at the forefront of our decisions. ”
