WASHINGTON — Firefly Aerospace has conducted the first hot-fire test of a new engine that will power the company’s future launch vehicles.
Firefly announced Nov. 28 that it conducted the test of its Miranda engine at the company’s Texas test site. A company spokesperson said the test, performed at 65% power, was designed to validate the engine’s startup sequence.
The company plans to work its way up to a full-duration test in the coming months, running the engine for 206 seconds. Miranda uses liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants, generating 230,000 pounds-force of thrust.
Seven Miranda engines will power the first stage of the Antares 330, a new version of Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket that the companies announced a partnership to develop in August 2022. It will replace the Ukrainian-built first stage previously used on Antares with Russian engines. The companies expect the Antares 330 to be ready for a first flight as soon as mid-2025.
A similar first stage, also using seven Miranda engines, will be used on another rocket, currently called the Medium Launch Vehicle or MLV. A new second stage will use a single vacuum-optimized Miranda engine. That vehicle, ready for a first launch as soon as late 2025, will be able to place up to 16,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit, versus the 10,000 kilograms of the Antares 330.
“Upgrading the first stage of Antares in parallel with developing the Medium Launch Vehicle enables our two companies to bring a new launch vehicle to market more rapidly while also reducing risk in the design process,” Scott Lehr, vice president and general manager of launch and missile defense systems at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement about the test.
Bill Weber, chief executive of Firefly, noted in the statement that Miranda was developed in just over a year. “Building on the legacy of Firefly’s rapidly developed Reaver and Lightning engines, Miranda is the fastest propulsion system we’ve…
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