Firefly has two new launch sites

Firefly announced this week that it will expand its launch sites to two new locations, including one international location. This comes as the company is hoping to get another successful launch under its belt to bolster it as a viable competitor to SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other larger launch companies.

Firefly is doubling down on its investment in Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallop’s Island. Long time home to the Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, Pad 0A will now host Firefly’s Alpha rocket.

The pad has been left unused since the retirement of the Antares 220+ rocket in the wake of heavy sanctions between the US and Russia due to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. Firefly and Northrop partnered up soon after to develop the Antares 330 and then the “Medium Launch Vehicle,” both of which also plan to use Pad 0A on Wallops.

This pad will replace Firefly’s plan to launch out of the congested Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It and the neighboring Kennedy Space Center have become the hottest and most active spaceports in the world thanks to SpaceX’s Falcon 9, launching nearly weekly this year.

Its move to Wallops will mean a quieter, more accessible range for Alpha. This is the same reason Rocket Lab set up shop right next door to Pad 0A with its LC-2 (Pad 0C) location for Electron. Rocket Lab also plans to launch its medium launch Neutron rocket out of Wallops as well, with pad construction well underway further south at LC-3 (Pad 0D).

As of now, Firefly has only launched out of California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base on high inclination missions. This launch site is perfect for the highly requested Sun-Synchronous Orbit, which flies over Earth’s poles. However, California cannot support lower inclination orbits, unless you fly retrograde, which requires way too much extra performance to be cost effective. Previously it was announced Firefly would support these mission from Florida but now plants to move to Virginia, a welcomed addition for locals.

Firefly plans to launch its first mission from Virginia in 2025.

Firefly goes international

Just a few days after making its Wallops launch announcement, Firefly announced it would also add a launch pad in Sweden at the Esrange Space Centre.

Operated by the Swedish Space Corporation, Estrange has been operating since the 1960s but only for suborbital, sounding rockets. Recently it announced its expansion into supporting orbital missions from the centre.

An expansion into Europe will increase Sweden’s support of space operations for NATO and give the continent a competitive, commercial launcher for domestic use. While there are other companies like Rocket Factory Augsburg and PLD Space that are making home grown solutions to that problem, none have made any orbital launch attempts yet.

Firefly expects to launch its first Alpha rocket from Sweden in 2026.