Cedar Park-Based Firefly Aerospace Named 'Turnaround Of The Year'

CEDAR PARK, TX — Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace has been bestowed the "Turnaround of the Year" designation by a noted trade publication in recognition of its record of overcoming obstacles in reaching new corporate heights.

"At Firefly, our corporate culture is rooted in solving hard problems and pushing through adversity," company officials wrote in a prepared statement following the recognition by SpaceNews. "Recognition of our perseverance by our industry’s top news outlet is affirming and greatly appreciated."

Privately held, the company develops small and medium-sized launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit. Indeed, the dips and soars of the Fcompany's recent trajectory rival the movements of rockets that are central to its corporate focus. Just three years ago, Firefly Aerospace was forced to lay off 150 workers after failing to secure a much-needed capital infusion. The lack of that anticipated windfall prompted the exodus of another key investor, leaving the company short $100 million to launch a satellite delivery rocket and leaving the future of the company in question.

"That really left us in a very difficult spot," company co-founder Michael Blum said at the time. "We needed that to keep going."

Since then, the company has reported a series of triumphs:

• May 2018: The firm secured support from the U.S. Air Force to use a California site for a planned launch of its commercial rocket, officials announced. A commercial rocket under development by Firefly is scheduled to conduct its first orbital flight in 2019 from the Vandenberg U.S. Air Force base in California. The company this week secured a so-called "statement of support" from the U.S. Air Force for use of the launch site toward that end, officials said.
• June 2018: Company officials agree use their Alpha rocket to deploy satellites for another firm. The agreement with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. calls for up to six launches between 2020 and 2022, officials said. SSTL, a spin-off company from the University of Surrey, is now majority-owned by Airbus Defense and Space, a builder of small satellites.
• October 2018: A memorandum of understanding is signed with York Space Systems for the development of integrated launch services and spacecraft mission solutions, in a partnership to launch up to four York's S-CLASS satellites into space.
• November 2018: NASA taps Firefly for an awarding of a commercial lunar payload services (CLPS) contract. The principal aim of the CLPS program is to acquire end-to-end commercial payload services between the Earth and lunar surface for NASA headquarters' Science, Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology Mission Directorates units.
• December 2018: Firefly Academy, a nonprofit organization run by the aerospace company, partners with Firefly@UT — a $1 million, multi-year program offering UT-Austin students the opportunity to design, develop and assemble an industrial-scale rocket capable of launching to the edge of space.
• April 2019: Company officials report a major milestone toward flight qualifications for its Firefly Alpha rocket, illustrating the news with photos and a video of a recent "hotfire" test completed on the company's vertical stage test stand. The length of the test, 300 seconds, successfully demonstrates the capability of "...the integrated system (flight avionics, structures, and propulsion systems) to operate for the duration of a flight mission (i.e., a mission duty cycle)," officials said in an email.
• May 2019: Company signs a memorandum of understanding with Airbus Defence and Space to develop new space launch solutions for Airbus customers.
• July 2019: Intellectual Property and Engineering Support Agreement signed with Israel Aerospace Industries for technology based on its Beresheet Lunar Lander.

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"It’s been an amazing 2019 at Firefly and we are incredibly proud of everything the Firefly team has accomplished," company officials said in a prepared statement. "We now have over 500 employees worldwide. There are 4 active test stands at our Texas test facility. Our Vandenberg team is preparing our SLC-2W launch site for the first Alpha launch. We’ve completed qualification of the Alpha second stage and the first stage qualification is well underway."

The company added: "Finally, a huge ‘Thank You’ to our investors at Noosphere Ventures who have made this incredible turnaround possible. First Alpha launch coming in 2020!"