LOGAN, Utah — Firefly Aerospace has won a contract from L3Harris for as many as 20 launches of its Alpha rocket over five years.
Firefly announced Aug. 7 it signed a contract with L3Harris for between two and four launches annually from 2027 through 2031. The contract is in addition to an earlier deal between the companies for three Alpha launches in 2026.
The companies did not disclose the satellites that L3Harris would be launching on Alpha. The rocket, currently operating from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, can place up to one metric ton into low Earth orbit.
The contract is the second multi-launch deal for Firefly announced in recent months. Firefly announced June 5 it won a contract from Lockheed Martin for between 15 and 25 Firefly launches through 2029.
Alpha has launched five times, most recently July 4 when it placed a set of NASA-sponsored cubesats into sun-synchronous orbits. At the time the company said its next Alpha launch would be a dedicated commercial mission for Lockheed Martin, although without a specific date set. That would be followed by a responsive space demonstration mission for the National Reconnaissance Office later in the year on another Alpha, using Firefly’s Elytra tug.
“The Firefly team is proud to build on our existing relationship with L3Harris and serve as a long-term launch provider for their robust satellite systems,” said Peter Schumacher, interim chief executive of Firefly, in a statement. “Firefly continues to see growing demand for Alpha’s responsive small-lift services, and we’re committed to providing a dedicated launch option that takes our customers directly to their preferred orbits.”
Schumacher stepped in as interim chief executive July 17 after the sudden departure of Bill Weber, who had reportedly been under investigation for having an inappropriate relationship with a female employee. Schumacher also served as interim chief executive for a time in 2022 before Weber was hired.
While Firefly builds up the order book for the Alpha rocket, it is continuing work on larger vehicles in partnership with Northrop Grumman. Firefly is developing the first stage of the Antares 330, replacing the Ukrainian-built first stage and Russian engines of the previous version of that rocket. Antares 330 will swiftly be succeeded by the Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV), which will use the same first stage but a new upper stage also built by Firefly along with a larger payload fairing. MLV will be able to place up to 16 metric tons into LEO.
The company announced July 15 that it performed a full “mission duty cycle” test-firing of the Miranda engine that will be used by the Antares 330 and MLV, running the engine for 206 seconds. That came a day after a 60-second test of the engine.
During a side meeting at the Small Satellite Conference here Aug. 6, representatives of Firefly and Northrop said they expected the first flight of MLV to take place in the second half of 2026.
