Firefly started as a company focused on rockets — the piece of aerospace equipment designed to haul satellites and spacecraft (such as lunar landers) to orbit.
And the company has had a few hangups, with its Alpha rocket notching a couple partial failures and two successes since its first failed flight in 2021.
Jason Kim, Firefly’s CEO, told CNN that learning how to build a rocket that can make it to orbit can offer some crucial know-how that informs how the company designed the propulsion system on board Blue Ghost.
“We’re using the same (attitude control) thrusters that have flight heritage on that rocket. We’re also using (reaction control) thrusters that we’ve built, developed in house, that are designed by the same people that design our rocket engines,” Kim said.
“That reduces risk and leverages a lot of the commonality and design and subject matter expertise,” he added.
Firefly test fires its rocket engines on a sprawling ranch in the tiny community of Briggs, Texas (which lies just up the road from this reporter’s hometown of Liberty Hill). CNN has visited the site several times over the years — watching as it evolved from a rocket engine test stand into a functioning factory rolling out full-size rockets.
As of CNN’s last visit in 2022, the engine test stands still sat right next to a cow pasture. We witnessed an engine test in 2019. The cows seemed remarkably unbothered.
The thrusters Kim mentioned were built (but not tested) at the Briggs site. The large main engine at Blue Ghost’s center, however, was built by a supplier.
