Past Mission
FLTA002 To The Black
Firefly’s 1st Orbital Launch
Mission Details
Mission Summary
FLTA002 To The Black was Firefly’s second test flight and first orbital launch. We successfully achieved our primary objective of reaching orbit in addition to deploying customer payloads and testing a stage two relight. The relight served as an opportunity to collect data for our next flight while providing valuable scientific and technical data to our demonstration customers. Ultimately, the success of this flight on only our second attempt proved Firefly’s engineering rigor and launch capabilities for government and commercial customers. It was a true testament to the maturity of our technologies and the expertise of our team.
Payloads
FLTA002 deployed a total of three payloads, including demonstration satellites from NASA TechEdSat-15 in conjunction with San Jose State University (SJSU), Teachers in Space, and Libre Space Foundation. These payloads will perform several in-space experiments, including an “exo-brake” to help in the deorbiting of satellites and test the world’s first fully-free and open-source telecommunications constellation.
Teachers in Space
NASA
Libre Space Foundation
Serenity
Teachers in Space
Class: 3U CubeSat
Dimensions: 32cm x 10cm x 10cm
Mass: 1.67Kg
Mission: To collect flight data during the mission and make it available to the educational community for analysis and comparison to data collected on other flights and vehicles.
Typical data collected: Atmospheric pressure, Temperature, and Radiation via a matched pair of Geiger counters, one wrapped in experimental radiation protection material, one unwrapped
TechEdSat-15
NASA
Class: 3U CubeSat
Dimensions: 10cm x 10cm x 34cm
Mass: 4.15kg
Mission: The TechEdSat-15 is a three-unit CubeSat that weighs 9.1 pounds and carries experiments that are being advanced in TechEdSat’s Nano-Orbital Workshop (NOW) rapid flight development series.
TechEdSat-15’s primary experiment is a version of an exo-brake intended to survive much higher temperature environments – several hundred degrees – than in previous flights. It will demonstrate the next step forward in nanosatellites’ ability to target an Earth entry point.
The exo-brake is a device that applies drag in Earth’s exosphere – the uppermost reaches of the atmosphere – to slow the speed of a satellite’s descent and change its direction. This experiment will permit the satellite to survive closer-to-peak heating, maintain telemetry, and assess the dynamics as the system enters the top of the atmosphere.
Another experiment on TechEdSat-15 includes the Beacon And Memory Board Interface (BAMBI), which optimizes internal and external data transfer from the nanosatellite.
The TechEdSat-NOW series has multiple research goals including using the exo-brake to de-orbit high-altitude nanosatellites at end of mission to reduce issues related to orbital debris. Additionally, drag modulation has uses for sample return from low-Earth orbit as well as tailoring orbits during aero-pass maneuvers for future planetary applications.
PicoBus
Libre Space Foundation
Class: PicoSat Deployer
Dimensions: 37cm x 12cm x 15cm
Mass: 6.327Kg (including dispenser)
Mission: An 8P Pocketqube deployer to be used to deploy 6 picosatellites into space and test the world’s first fully free and open source telecommunications constellation
GENESIS-G & GENESIS-J (AMSAT Spain). Objective: Technology demonstration for radio-amateurs, electrospray thruster & test platform to build heritage for future missions.
FOSSASAT-1B. Objective: Communication & Remote sensing Technology Demonstrator of LoRa telecommunications, ADCS demonstration, & low-resolution earth imager experiment.
Qubik-1 & Qubik-2 (Libre Space). Objective: Communication Technology Demonstrator performing multiple telecommunication experiments
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