Northrop Grumman invests $50 million in Cedar Park’s Firefly Aerospace

Northrop Grumman, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense companies, announced May 29 that it will invest $50 million in Cedar Park’s Firefly Aerospace to develop new rocket technology.

The details

The cash infusion will go towards furthering development on Eclipse, a medium-lift launch vehicle that combines technology from Northrop Grumman’s Antares and Firefly’s Alpha rockets. The Eclipse project will be used to carry cargo into low-Earth orbit, and will have a payload capacity of up to 16,000 kilograms, according to Firefly’s website.

The Eclipse mission is slated to launch in 2026, and will be used for space station resupply missions, commercial spacecraft, national security missions and scientific payloads for the domestic and international market, according to the website.

Digging deeper

Firefly recently made news when their Blue Ghost launcher became the first private commercial company to put a lander on the moon, as previously reported by Community Impact.

Quote of note

“Firefly is incredibly grateful for Northrop Grumman’s investment that further solidifies our first-of-its-kind partnership to build the first stage of Antares 330 and jointly develop Eclipse,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace, in a news release.