Firefly Aerospace has been selected as one of nine companies that will compete for NASA contracts to send small rockets to the moon to deliver supplies that could one day help build a lasting presence there.
NASA selected Firefly alongside Lockheed Martin, Astrobotic, Moon Express, Masten Space Systems, Deep Space Systems, Draper, Intuitive Machines and Orbit Beyond.
The contract selection marks the latest step in the United States' quest to use commercial space outfits to send both commercial and governmental equipment to the surface of the moon, where there may be potential to mine water buried on the surface and help sustain life there -- or make rocket fuel to launch from the moon in to deeper parts of space.
Earlier this year, Firefly's latest lunar vehicle was revealed by NASA. It depicts a long, sleek lunar lander atop massive rockets.
The Firefly Aerospace website has a new look! Check it out! https://t.co/mAjNoP4R4U #MakingSpaceForEveryone pic.twitter.com/shkIHbfL4W
— Firefly Aerospace (@Firefly_Space) November 8, 2018
An actual launch may be years off, and Firefly will be competing with larger, more well-financed space companies. But Firefly's inclusion in the NASA program is a huge validation point for the aerospace company, which is based just north of Austin in Cedar Park and has rocket testing facilities in a rural area north of that.
“In conjunction with our Beta launch vehicle and our partnership with Intuitive Machines, Firefly will provide an integrated lunar services offering, from the launch pad to the surface of the Moon," Firefly CEO Tom Markusic said in a news release. "We are honored to partner with NASA in an extraordinary effort that will broaden humanity’s knowledge of the cosmos and inspire a new generation of space entrepreneurs.”
Already, Firefly is selling t-shirts that tease its potential missions to the moon. The excitement is a big change for the company, which temporarily shut down in 2016 after problems with an investor. By 2017, it reemerged with the same mission -- to deliver small satellites into space.
The company has been moving quickly ever since, inking deals with fellow space companies and securing places to launch rockets from.
Under this new NASA contract, Firefly will be working to provide end-to-end commercial payload services between the Earth and the lunar surface. The payloads would be relatively small. And the work includes development of launch vehicles, lunar lander spacecraft, lunar surface systems, Earth re-entry vehicles and more. The contracts are worth a maximum of $2.6 billion over 10 years.
NASA hasn't yet set a date for its first project that the companies will compete for.
The new contracts are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to use the moon as a place to test new tech and launch future space missions at a lower cost.
