Another player appeared on the satellite launch market, and Firefly successfully completed the test flight for the first time, and a single rocket launched several tiny satellites into low-Earth orbit.
The Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket, 29 metres high, launched on 1 October at 10:01 Moscow time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
This time, it went well: the two stages of the missile separated approximately 2.5 minutes after the launch, and the upper stage entered an elliptical transition orbit five minutes after that. Within one hour, all three payloads reached the identified trajectory, reported to the company.
The payload of the rocket is small satellites, the size of which includes a data collection device for the scientific community and experimental satellites for NASA and the non-profit organization Libre Space.
According to the organization, the Alpha single rocket is designed to bring small satellites into orbit and can raise up to 1,170 kg of cargo, and the cost of each launch for commercial clients is $15 million.
Read: