Firefly - Alpha Rocket 3rd.
It is expected that at 01:18 Beijing time on December 21, 2023, the Firefly-Alpha launch vehicle carrying the new phased array broadband satellite will be launched from the SLC-2W station at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to carry out the second launch of the rocket of the year.
The payload for this mission is the New Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) Wideband, which is based on the Nebula platform of Terran Orbital and carries a new electronically scanning phased array antenna developed by Lockheed Martin.
Firefly - Alpha Rocket 3rd.
Firefly Alpha is a two-stage small liquid launch vehicle developed by Firefly, and the first and second stages are powered by liquid oxygen kerosene propellant. The arrow is 29 long48 meters, 1 or 2 diameters8 meters, equipped with a fairing with a diameter of 2 meters, take-off mass 5412 tons, take-off thrust of about 8173 tons, its height is 200 kilometers, and the inclination angle is 285 degrees of low earth orbit capacity 117 tons, load factor 216%, with an altitude of 300 kilometers and a low earth orbit capacity of 103 tons, load factor 190%, altitude 500 km sun-synchronous orbit capacity 0745 tons, load factor 138%。
Although the Firefly-Alpha rocket is small, it has a high carrying efficiency. The arrow uses a lightweight engine and a lightweight body, and its first and second dry weights are only 2895 tons and 0909 tons, the dry mass of the whole arrow is 3804 tons, structural coefficient 703%, which forms a strong basis for the high carrying efficiency of the "Alpha" rocket.
Prior to this mission, the Firefly-Alpha rocket had performed a total of 3 launches, the first flight failed, the second launch was partially successful, and the third launch was successful. At present, the "special car" ** of "Alpha" is 15 million US dollars, which is converted into 1280,000 US dollars kilograms, in an increasingly competitive market environment, the arrow needs to show advantages in performance speed and ordering.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou.