Northrop Grumman and Firefly announced a partnership to develop a new first stage for Antares—the same first stage that will power Firefly’s larger launch vehicle, Beta. It’s a great partnership for both parties that will surely lead to more interesting things in the future.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 42 executive producers—Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Frank, Julian and Lars from Agile Space, Matt, The Astrogators at SEE, Chris, Aegis Trade Law, Fred, Hemant, Dawn Aerospace, Andrew, Harrison, Benjamin, SmallSpark Space Systems, and seven anonymous—and 816 other supporters.

Topics

• Northrop Grumman Teams with Firefly Aerospace to Develop Antares Rocket Upgrade and New Medium Launch Vehicle | Northrop Grumman
• Northrop Grumman and Firefly to partner on upgraded Antares - SpaceNews
• Beta - Firefly Aerospace
• Stephen Clark on Twitter: “Northrop Grumman's Kurt Eberly says the company has booked three Falcon 9 missions with SpaceX, beginning in the second half of 2023, to launch Cygnus resupply missions to the International Space Station. Northrop hopes to have upgraded Antares 330 ready by end of 2024.”
• Firefly partners with Aerojet Rocketdyne, mulls AR1 engine for Beta launch vehicle - SpaceNews
• AE Industrial Partners to acquire stake in Firefly from Noosphere - SpaceNews
• Firefly co-founder Markusic to step down as CEO - SpaceNews

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• Artwork photo by ESA