NASA’s ambition to establish a permanent presence on the moon has received a significant boost from Central Texas, as Firefly Aerospace, headquartered in Cedar Park, has been awarded a $75 million subcontract to deliver four specialized drones to the lunar South Pole.
This initiative, dubbed the MoonFall mission, marks a key phase in NASA’s Moon Base program, which aims to lay the groundwork for sustained human habitation and enhanced scientific and commercial activities on the lunar surface.
“We’re just proud to be a Texas company, making Texas proud, making America proud,” remarked Jason Kim, CEO of Firefly Aerospace.
The mission will utilize Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft, specifically configured in its high-capacity “Elytra Dark” variant, to execute a 45-day journey from Earth. Once in lunar orbit, the spacecraft will perform a braking maneuver that will allow it to deploy the drones approximately 31 miles (50 kilometers) above the moon’s surface.
Due to the absence of an atmosphere on the moon, traditional rotor-based drones are not viable. Instead, these drones will utilize rocket-powered “hops” to navigate the challenging terrain and access historically difficult-to-reach craters.
Shihao Fu, a technology analyst with IDTechEx, highlighted the evolving landscape of the industry, stating, “What is changing now in the industry is the quality of data the drones can collect.”
Equipped with high-definition optical cameras and scientific instruments, the drones will explore permanently shadowed regions in search of critical resources such as water ice. Their mapping efforts will also identify safe landing zones for future human missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
“We envision the moon base to be hundreds of square miles with different assets all building up to the objective of permanent lunar presence on the moon,” explained Carlos García-Galán, a program executive for the moon base.
The MoonFall project is just one of several deep-space initiatives being undertaken by Firefly. The company is also managing three additional lunar missions under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.
“We’re funded by NASA on what’s called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services, which means that we’re expected to take commercial providers to the moon,” noted Kevin Scholtes, a future systems architect at Firefly. “What’s really important here is proving that there is an industry and an economy for taking payloads to the moon.”
The increasing number of deep-space contracts has spurred rapid growth at Firefly’s manufacturing facility in Central Texas. The company is expanding its cleanroom operations to build an active assembly line for automated spacecraft production.
If all goes according to plan, the drones are expected to operate for up to 14 Earth days, corresponding to a single lunar day. Following their final propulsive flights, specialized “survive-the-night” technology onboard will enable the drones to continue transmitting data back to Earth for several months.
The launch for the MoonFall mission is slated for no earlier than 2028.
