Firefly Aerospace, an end-to-end space transportation company, has announced the company was awarded a NASA Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) mission to launch the QuickSounder environmental satellite on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Scheduled to launch on Firefly's Alpha rocket in 2026, the collaborative mission between NASA and NOAA is the first project supporting NOAA's new Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) program.
Most Read on Design & Development Today:
- Navy Officer Demoted After Sneaking Starlink Satellite Dish Onto a Warship
- It Took 50,000 Gallons of Water to Put Out Tesla Semi Fire in California, U.S. Agency Says
- A Capsule has Been Propelled Through a Hyperloop Test Tube in a Step Forward for the Transit System
- A Plan to Extract Gold from Mining Waste Splits a Colorado Town with a Legacy of Pollution
NEON is the next generation environmental satellite system that will supplement and eventually replace NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System. The NEON program aims to launch small to medium-sized satellites with Earth-observing instruments more frequently to create a resilient constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that can be deployed quickly to enhance the nation's weather forecasting, disaster management, and climate change monitoring.
Developed by the Southwest Research Institute, QuickSounder is the first environmental satellite to launch as part of NEON. QuickSounder will carry NOAA's Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instrument that provides critical information about Earth's atmosphere, such as temperature and moisture, within just 30 minutes of data collection to significantly improve NOAA's weather prediction models for fires, floods, droughts, and more.
Launching from Firefly's SLC-2 launch site at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, the QuickSounder mission will be Firefly's second Alpha launch for NASA. Firefly's Alpha rocket is the only commercially operational launch vehicle dedicated to serving the one-metric ton satellite market. The flight proven vehicle provides responsive, reliable, and cost-competitive launch services directly to customers' preferred orbits.
Click here to subscribe to our daily newsletter.
