A company with a research and development office in Ukraine is among a group of nine firms U.S. space agency NASA said on Nov. 29 can take part in tenders to help send missions to the Moon, including manned missions.
The Ukraine-linked firm, Firefly Aerospace, develops small and medium-sized rockets and satellites for making commercial launches into orbit. Firefly was first known as Firefly Space Systems, but it was renamed after Ukrainian Max Polyakov bought the company in 2017.
The tenders will be conducted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which foresees exploration of the Moon’s surface and the building of a lunar orbiting station called Gateway, an outpost for astronauts and spacecraft travelling to the Moon, the agency announced on Nov. 29.
The agency said the program was “one of the first steps toward long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and eventually Mars.”
“Today’s announcement marks tangible progress in America’s return to the Moon’s surface to stay,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement published on Nov. 29.
Over the next 10 years, NASA plans to call tenders worth $2.6 billion for the selected space firms. The number of possible missions and the costs of particular contracts haven’t been disclosed, however.
Comparing future bids, NASA will study the technical feasibility, price and schedules offered by the nine companies. NASA expects to be only one of many customers that will use the commercial landing services — from the Earth to the Moon — created by the program.
The full list of the selected companies: Lockheed Martin, Astrobotic, Moon Express, Masten Space Systems, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Intuitive Machines, Orbit Beyond, and Firefly Aerospace.
Headquartered in Texas, U.S.-Ukrainian Firefly Aerospace is legally American, but much of its research and development — basic science and rocket manufacturing techniques — is based in Dnipro, a Ukrainian city some 500 kilometers southeast of Kyiv.
Firefly says its approach to rocket manufacturing is to combine U.S. and Soviet rocketry techniques. However, the company has not yet conducted any test or commercial launches. Its first tests are expected to take place in 2019.
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