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Space The Military United States

Firefly Aerospace Sets Launch Speed Record For US Space Force (space.com) 28

Posted by BeauHD from the that-was-quick dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Space.com: Firefly Aerospace just set a new responsive-launch record. The company's Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Thursday (Sept. 14) at 10:28 p.m. EDT (7:28 p.m. local California time; 0228 GMT on Sept. 15), kicking off a mission for the U.S. Space Force called Victus Nox. The rocket roared off the pad just 27 hours after the U.S. Space Force gave the order -- less time than on any previous national security mission. The wheels for Victus Nox (Latin for "conquer the night") began turning in September 2022, when the Space Force awarded contracts to Texas-based Firefly and Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing subsidiary headquartered in the Los Angeles area that built the mission's payload.

On Aug. 30 of this year, Firefly and Millennium entered the mission's "hot standby" phase, a six-month period during which they could receive a launch-alert notice at any time. After receipt of that notice, Millennium and Firefly would have 60 hours to get the satellite from Millennium's Southern California facilities to Vandenberg, fuel it up and mate it to the Alpha rocket's payload adapter. The alert came through recently, and the mission teams hit their ambitious timeline. "Upon activation, the space vehicle was transported 165 miles [266 kilometers] from Millennium's El Segundo facility to Vandenberg Space Force Base where it was tested, fueled and mated to the launch adapter in just under 58 hours, significantly faster than the typical timeline of weeks or months," Space Force officials said in the emailed statement.

The teams then had to wait for the launch order, which would give them Victus Nox's orbital requirements. They would then have just 24 hours to update Alpha's trajectory and guidance software, encapsulate the satellite in its payload fairing, get the payload to the pad, mate it to Alpha and get the rocket ready to launch, Firefly wrote in a statement. The teams managed that task as well. They were ready to launch as soon as the first window opened, which was 27 hours after the Space Force gave the order. Victus Nox's speed goals didn't end with the successful liftoff. The teams now aim to get the satellite up and running within 48 hours of its deployment. The report notes that the previous response-launch record for a U.S. national security mission was 21 days, which was set in June 2021.
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Firefly Aerospace Sets Launch Speed Record For US Space Force More

Firefly Aerospace Sets Launch Speed Record For US Space Force

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  • Missiles have been launched literally within seconds; How is this any kind of record?
    • Missiles fly ballistic trajectories. Much harder to put the payload into a very precise orbit. I would also guess that the payload needs some kind of preparation, it doesn't just explode on impact.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by r1348 ( 2567295 )

      Name me a single orbital launch that was launched within seconds.

      • Although SLBMs are not normally orbital rockets, they can launch to orbit. For example, I remember back in 1998 the Soviets launched satellites into orbit from the K-407 Novomoskovsk submarine using a "ballistic" missile (RSM-54).

    • Because they already have the payload on and are already fueled, and ICBMs already have the trajectories loaded.

  • USSF aspires to be the UFP, not the Alliance. And certainly not an organization supported by browncoats.

  • In the 1950s through the 1970s, rockets and missile systems were broken down so no one single vendor had strike capability. The U.S. Government should not allow a privately owned company (here) to assemble a launch vehicle, capable of carrying a payload capable of destroying a city.

    • You want to build the tech but also stop the people that build it from having the skills? All it takes is a few people with the right skills and some resources. Musk and Bezos seemed to have no problem assembling teams that could do it.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • That was my first thought as well, but I’d guess it doesn’t take too much know-how to make the hypothetical “rods from God” weapon that would have roughly as much explosive power as a nuke.

  • I thought that show was cancelled.

  • with US as the subject. The rest of the world also has ambitions.

    Russian hyper sonic missiles, which we lag by about 20 years anyone?

  • Yeah right. (Score:3)

    by SuperDre ( 982372 ) on Saturday September 16, 2023 @12:43PM (#63853512) Homepage
    The rocket was already on the platform, already had the payload loaded, and was already fueled, so it was actually just sitting there waiting for 'the button' to be pressed, and once pressed, it took 27 hours to actually launch. Sorry, but I'm not impressed. I would be slightly impressed if the 27 hours would be from loading the payload, fueling up and lifting off within 27 hours of 'pressing the button'. But hee, it's just another twisting reality to get the budget. Oh, and it's Boeing that's behind it.
  • Their engineering is fortunately better than their Latin. "Victus Nox" does not mean "conquer the night". In fact, it doesn't mean anything at all. The only thing that "victus" could be as a verb is the masculine singular nominative of the perfect passive participle, meaning "conquered", but the phrase can't mean "the conquered night" because nox "night" is a feminine noun, so "conquered night" would be "victa nox". Maybe they should have used Klingon, a language their engineers are more likely to get righ

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