CHANDLER, Ariz. – Northrop Grumman Corporation has invested $50 million into Firefly Aerospace to further advance production of the companies’ co-developed medium launch vehicle, now known as Eclipse.
Built on Northrop Grumman’s Antares and Firefly’s Alpha rocket, Eclipse offers a leap in power, performance, production cadence and payload capacity. The launch vehicle retains the flight-proven avionics from Antares while delivering additional performance upgrades, including a larger 5.4 meter-class payload fairing.
Firefly utilized the same patented tap-off cycle architecture from Alpha’s Reaver and Lightning engines for Eclipse’s Miranda and Vira engines, and completed mission duty cycle with a 206-second Miranda hot fire test, matching the longest time the engine will burn during a flight. Following several development test campaigns, flight hardware has been manufactured for the common dome propellant tanks, engine bay and interstage.
Wendy Williams, vice president and general manager, launch and missile defense systems, Northrop Grumman said “Eclipse gives customers the right balance of payload capacity and affordability. Our partnership with Firefly builds on our capacity to provide crucial spaced-based communication, observation, and exploration for civil and national security customers.”
Eclipse will launch up to 16,300 kg of cargo to low Earth orbit or 3,200 kg of cargo to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Eclipse will first launch from Wallops Island, Virginia, and be able to support space station resupply, commercial spacecraft, critical national security missions and scientific payloads for the domestic and international markets.
Eclipse is manufactured in Briggs, Texas, and Chandler, Arizona, and utilizes the same first stage Firefly is developing for the Northrop Grumman Antares 330 rocket. Both launch vehicles will use seven of Firefly’s Miranda engines.
Eclipse qualification testing is underway, with flight hardware developed, more than 60 Miranda engine hot fire tests performed to date and a targeted first launch no earlier than 2026.
