The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, has signed a $9.8 million contract with an American aerospace company to launch satellites for space research, the U.S. space agency reported on Dec. 11.
Called Firefly Black, the company with Ukrainian roots has become one of three firms selected by NASA to launch small satellites, including two CubeSats, square-shaped miniature satellites mainly used for research missions in low Earth orbits.
These satellites are playing an “increasingly larger role in exploration, technology demonstration, scientific research,” the statement by NASA reads.
The satellites can be used to track the weather, for example.
“We applaud NASA’s commitment to the nation’s emerging small launch industrial base and look forward to supporting America’s civil space launch needs for many years,” said Leslie Kovacs, president of Firefly Black, U.S. media Business Wire reported.
This isn’t the first time Firefly Black has worked with NASA.
In 2018, the space agency chose its parent Firefly Aerospace as one of nine companies for its $2.6 billion Moon Payload Program, which was described as one of the “first steps toward long-term scientific study and human exploration of the Moon and eventually Mars.”
Although founded by Ukrainian Max Polyakov, Firefly Aerospace is a Texas-based company. It currently employs 310 workers and 140 of them are based in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
In 2021, the company plans to launch its two-stage Alpha rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch will cost $15 million and will deliver 1 ton of payload to a low Earth orbit.
The debut of the Alpha rocket was originally scheduled for early 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For NASA, Firefly Aerospace is also developing a robotic moon lander and a rocket called Beta. One launch of the Beta rocket will cost $35 million, but the rocket will be able to lift up to 4 tons of cargo into a low Earth orbit.
In the 2018 interview with the Kyiv Post, Yuriy Zabiyaka, CEO of Firefly Ukraine, said that, in their work, Firefly Aerospace is “trying to combine the former Soviet Union engineering school of rockets with the U.S. school of rocket building.”
