Firefly to supply rocket engines and parts for space sector

Launch vehicle and spacecraft manufacturer, Firefly Aerospace, has launched a new business to supply rocket engines and other spaceflight components to the space industry.

The new business hopes to shorten the time to market and have a reliable and consistent sourcing partner for spaceflight components.

“Our goal with this line of business is to become the Tier 1 supplier of components to the New Space industry,” said Tom Markusic, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “Our component sales business model has inherent advantages over businesses that focus on a single (e.g., rocket engines) or narrow range (e.g., valves) of components.”

Firefly not only builds and operates spaceflight vehicles, such as its Alpha rocket, but will also become a premier sourcing partner for other space companies to procure the components that are used in those vehicles, helping to lower the barrier to entry in the sector.

Through the manufacture of its own vehicles, Firefly will establish flight heritage for all components before supplying them to other companies, providing customers with high confidence and low risk, as the components will have been fully proven in spaceflight missions, not just ground tests.

As the company adds external customers, it will allow Firefly to manufacturer increasingly larger numbers of the same components, creating economies of scale for production efficiency and cost reduction.

“We initially focused external sales on Firefly’s rocket engines, which we believe provide the best cost/performance in the industry. Initial demand has been strong, with external orders already exceeding the quantity of engines that Firefly was building for use on its own launch vehicle, Alpha,” said Eric Salwan, CRO of Firefly. “Firefly also has strong expertise in the design and production of carbon fibre composite structures. We are currently in active negotiations to supply composite components, such as composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV), to external customers.”

While Firefly is launching this line of business based on the components developed in-house, it plans to expand its offerings to include a number of components developed by its partners.

www.firefly.com