Texas-based space start-up Firefly Aerospace recently received an investment worth USD 50 million from the American defence contractor Northrop Grumman. It is worth mentioning here that both companies are going to jointly develop a medium launch vehicle, dubbed “Eclipse”, based on Northrop’s Antares and Firefly’s Alpha rocket. Eclipse will have its first launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, as early as 2026.
Eclipse will support space station resupply, commercial spacecraft, critical national security missions, and scientific payloads for domestic and international markets. The whole development comes amid the growing interest in space start-ups as the Donald Trump administration eyes an efficiency drive in the sector.
Talking about Firefly, the start-up gained prominence in the space race after becoming the second private firm to score a moon landing in a successful first attempt with its uncrewed Blue Ghost spacecraft earlier in 2025.
The Texas-based company was valued at more than USD 2 billion in November 2024, when it raised USD 175 million in a late-stage funding round. Firefly also makes small- and medium-lift launch vehicles for commercial launches to the Earth’s orbit.
A Responsive Space Company
Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to launch, land, and operate spacecraft on an “anywhere and anytime” basis. The start-up’s small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles are enabling it to service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond.
With more than 700 employees, Firefly is quickly growing to support regular launches, on-orbit missions, and lunar landings. Spearheading the start-up’s efforts, Firefly’s small-lift rocket Alpha has emerged as a cost-effective option to launch more than 1,000 kg to low Earth orbit in support of commercial, civil, and national security missions.
Alpha can be launched domestically or internationally through Firefly’s launch facilities at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and new launch capabilities coming soon at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia, as early as 2025 and at the Esrange Space Centre in Sweden as early as 2026.
Alpha is built with patented tap-off cycle engines, which reduce complexity with fewer parts and improve reliability compared to staged combustion or gas generator cycles. Firefly also utilises advanced carbon fibre composites for Alpha’s entire airframe and linerless cryogenic propellant tanks, enabling a strong, lightweight vehicle at value prices.
Equipped to launch with just 24-hour notice, Alpha can be paired with the start-up’s Elytra vehicle to support responsive on-orbit missions post-launch, such as relocation, space domain awareness, and de-orbiting services. Firefly has also set up its automated in-house manufacturing, along with rapid, iterative testing to support responsive space missions.
Talking about “Eclipse”, Firefly Aerospace and Northrop Grumman are co-developing the new medium-lift launch vehicle that combines the best technologies, systems, and mission experience from both companies to fill a void in the global launch market.
Eclipse will first launch from Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) with the ability to lift more than 16,000 kg to orbit in support of space station resupply missions, commercial spacecraft, national security missions, and scientific payloads for the domestic and international market. Designed for reusability, Eclipse has been optimised for return to launch site (RTLS) and propulsive landing of the first stage.
Eclipse has a high-strength, lightweight carbon composite airframe and tanks that reduce vehicle mass and lift heavier payloads at a lower cost. Patented tap-off cycle architecture further removes the need for excess engine components to reduce complexity and improve reliability.
Betting Big On Lunar Missions
With launch, lunar, and orbital vehicles, Firefly is now providing end-to-end cislunar services in support of the United States, other international government agencies, and the commercial lunar market.
Firefly mission managers guide each payload through integration planning, verification, launch, and mission operations. Compatible with multiple launch providers, Blue Ghost can be launched aboard Firefly’s Eclipse launch vehicle to provide a seamless mission experience.
Blue Ghost Lander has been designed and built to be easily adapted to serve each customer’s unique cislunar needs. Firefly’s vertically integrated approach with shared components across the start-up’s launch vehicles further enables scaled efficiencies, quality assurance, and lower costs that the company passes on to its customers.
Firefly has been awarded four task orders through the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, supporting three missions to the Moon in 2025, 2026, and 2028. The “Blue Ghost Mission 1”, named “Ghost Riders in the Sky”, launched on January 15 and performed the first fully successful commercial Moon landing on March 2. Blue Ghost then completed more than 14 days of surface operations (346 hours of daylight) and just over five hours of operations into the lunar night.
This achievement marked the longest commercial operations on the Moon to date. The second mission will have the task of providing payload services in lunar orbit and on the lunar surface in 2026, utilising a two-stage spacecraft configuration with Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander stacked on an Elytra Dark orbital vehicle.
Elytra vehicle will first deploy Blue Ghost and the European Space Agency’s Lunar Pathfinder satellite in lunar orbit. Blue Ghost will then touch down on the far side of the Moon and operate government and commercial payloads for more than 10 days on the surface. Elytra will remain in lunar orbit to provide a communications relay and enable radio frequency calibration services for NASA’s LuSEE-Night telescope.
As part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload (CLPS) initiative, Firefly’s third mission to the Moon in 2028 will utilise Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, Elytra Dark orbital vehicle, and a rover to investigate the unique composition of the Gruithuisen Domes, a part of the Moon that has never been explored. During mission operations, Elytra will first deploy Blue Ghost into lunar orbit and then remain in orbit to provide long-haul communications. Blue Ghost will then land in the Gruithuisen Domes, deploy the rover, and operate six NASA-sponsored payloads for more than 14 days on the lunar surface, the start-up informed.
Meet Elytra
As part of Firefly’s end-to-end space transportation services, Elytra is offering robust on-orbit solutions when and where customers need them. The start-up’s line of highly mobile and scalable orbital vehicles provides on-orbit transfers, hosting, delivery, and servicing across cislunar space and beyond. Available to launch on Alpha and Eclipse, Elytra can service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions.
While Elytra Dawn supports responsive hosting, rideshare, and delivery missions in LEO (Low Earth Orbit) and beyond, the lightweight orbital vehicle can be rapidly deployed on Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle to meet customers’ urgent mission needs. With an upcoming mission in 2025, Elytra Dawn offers multiple on-demand deployment opportunities for rideshare customers.
Next is Elytra Dusk, which supports larger, more advanced on-orbit missions from LEO to GEO (Geostationary Orbit). With enhanced manoeuvrability, power, and autonomy, the intelligent platform offers responsive on-orbit tasking, such as relocation, space domain awareness, and de-orbiting services.
Elytra Dark serves as persistent orbital infrastructure in support of a wide variety of missions from LEO to lunar orbit and beyond. Multiple Elytra Dark vehicles can be coordinated for more advanced space domain awareness and on-orbit servicing.
Autonomous vehicles are ruggedised to support interplanetary transfers and deployments across extreme environments. An iteration of Elytra Dark will serve as the transfer vehicle for Blue Ghost Mission 2, enabling additional customer opportunities for lunar orbit delivery and operations.
Elytra Mission 1, set for a 2025 launch, will demonstrate the responsive on-orbit capabilities of Firefly’s Elytra orbital vehicle. In support of Xtenti’s (space logistics player) follow-on study contract with the NRO, Elytra will utilise Xtenti’s FANTM-RiDE dispenser to deploy multiple US government and commercial payloads on demand.
Image Credits: Firefly Aerospace