Cedar Park-Based Firefly Sets Launching Pad For STEM Quest

CEDAR PARK, TX — Cedar Park-based Firefly Aerospace is heightening awareness to the importance of STEM education to new heights by launching a competition to host payloads on one of their rockets.

Noting how space travel inspires interest in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the company is promoting the disciplines by launching a global competition to host academic and educational payloads for free on the inaugural flight of its Alpha launch vehicle, officials said Monday. The effort furthers the aerospace firm's efforts to promote STEM study along with its Firefly Academy for youth, the Base 11 Space Challenge and the Firefly International Rocket Event (FIRE).

“If America fails to grow more STEM talent over the next few years, our country risks being left behind technologically," Deborah James, former Secretary of the U.S. Air Force and current Firefly Advisory Board member, said in a prepared statement. "That’s why Firefly’s challenge is so important. Inspiring young people and making science cool is the name of the game.”

The manifestation of that philanthropic commitment to STEM will come in the form of apportioning space on its payload capacity during Alpha’s maiden flight to support and stimulate STEM on a global basis, company officials said. Firefly also aims to enable other newspace enterprises and increase economic activity in low earth orbit, officials added.

Dubbed the Dedicated Research and Education Accelerator Mission (DREAM) payload, the allotted space also provides newspace entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to gain access to space and gain flight heritage for concepts, Firefly officials said in a press advisory. DREAM payloads will be co-manifested with a commercial payload, officials added.

“ 'Making Space for Everyone’ has been an essential part of Firefly’s vision and dream since the day we began,” Firefly CEO Dr. Tom Markusic said in a prepared statement. “I’m proud to announce today that we’re following through on that commitment by opening a competition, to literally everyone, for the use of the excess capacity of our first Alpha launch.”

Added Markusic: “All ideas are welcome — from a child’s drawing, to a university science experiment, to a startup company cube sat — so we encourage everyone to propose their idea for a DREAM payload to Firefly for consideration.”

Details and specifications for DREAM payloads can be found on the Firefly website. Applications should be submitted for consideration by June 30.

ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE

Firefly is developing a family of launch and in-space vehicles and services that provide industry-leading affordability, convenience and reliability. Firefly’s launch vehicles utilize common technologies, manufacturing infrastructure and launch capabilities, providing LEO launch solutions for up to six metric tons of payload at the lowest cost/kg in the small-to-medium lift class. Combined with Firefly’s in-space vehicles, such as the Orbital Transfer Vehicle, Firefly provides the space industry with a one-stop shop for missions from LEO to the surface of the Moon. Headquartered in Cedar Park, Texas, Firefly has additional presence in Washington, D.C., Dnipro, Ukraine and Tokyo, Japan. Firefly is financed by Noosphere Ventures of Menlo Park, California.