Northrop Grumman Series D investment advances MLV Eclipse co-developed with Firefly
A $50 million investment further supports Eclipse, a platform built upon the success of Firefly’s carbon fiber Alpha and Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with a leap in power, performance and payload capacity.
Source | Firefly Aerospace
Northrop Grumman Corp. (Falls Church, Va., U.S.) has invested $50 million into Firefly Aerospace (Cedar, Texas, U.S.) to further advance production of a co-developed medium launch vehicle (MLV), now known as Eclipse. The companies continue to make progress in the development of Eclipse flight hardware with qualification testing underway and more than 60 Miranda engine hot fire tests performed to date.
“Northrop Grumman’s investment further solidifies our partnership to build the first stage of Antares 330 and jointly develop Eclipse,” says Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace. “Eclipse represents two powerful forces coming together to transform the launch market with decades of flight heritage, a rapid, iterative approach and bold innovation. With a 16 metric ton to orbit capability, Eclipse is a sweet spot for programs like NSSL Lane 1 and a natural fit to launch proliferated constellations in LEO, MEO, GEO and TLI.”
Built upon Grumman’s Antares and Firefly’s Alpha rocket, Eclipse offers what partners say is a significant leap in power, performance, production cadence and payload capacity. The MLV retains the flight-proven avionics from the Antares program with additional upgrades, including a larger 5.4-meter payload fairing. Eclipse also uses the same first stage Firefly is developing for Antares 330 and retains scaled-up versions of Alpha’s propulsion systems and carbon fiber composite structures, enabling the team to rapidly build and test Eclipse with significant production efficiencies and economies of scale.
Firefly also used the same tap-off cycle architecture from Alpha’s Reaver and Lightning engines for Eclipse’s Miranda and Vira engines, and completed mission duty cycle with a 206-second Miranda hot fire, matching the longest time the engine will burn during a flight. Following several development test campaigns, flight hardware has been manufactured for the common dome propellant tanks, engine bay and interstage.
“Eclipse gives customers the right balance between payload capacity and affordability,” notes Wendy Williams, vice president and general manager, launch and missile defense systems, Northrop Grumman. “Our partnership with Firefly builds on our capacity to provide crucial spaced-based communication, observation and exploration for civil and national security customers.”
Eclipse is equipped to deliver 16,300 kilograms of cargo to low Earth orbit or 3,200 kilograms of cargo to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Eclipse will first launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, as early as 2026 and is able to support space station resupply, commercial spacecraft, critical national security missions and scientific payloads for the domestic and international markets.
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