Digital rendition of the Firefly Alpha rocket. Photo: Firefly

Firefly Aerospace has signed a launch agreement with Satlantis, which will use the Firefly Alpha launch vehicle to deploy its constellation of Earth Observation (EO) and remote sensing satellites starting in 2022. 

Satlantis CEO Juan Hernani said that Firefly will provide cost-efficient, on-demand launch services to meet Satlantis’ stringent orbit and revisit requirements for its constellation, which will feature high-resolution multispectral cameras with four bands of 80cm native resolution. Firefly is developing a family of launch and in-space vehicles and services utilizing common technologies, manufacturing infrastructure and launch capabilities, providing LEO launch solutions for up to four metric tons of payload for what the company calls the lowest cost/kg in the small-lift class.

“SATLANTIS is constantly developing cutting-edge technologies to support the growing need for high-accuracy and high-revisit Earth observation,” said Firefly CEO Dr. Tom Markusic. “The Firefly Alpha was specifically designed to support the new wave of low Earth orbit observation constellations