I find it hard to just come up with a simple, one word description of this. It's a three company alliance, all of which have incentives to work together. Not a merger, that implies they become one. An alliance is as good a word as there is.
Regardless of what you call it, SpaceFlight Now reports today that Firefly Aerospace, the small company that hasn't had much success in launching their Alpha rocket so far but who built the first commercially made lunar lander that successfully landed on the moon has joined small provider Seagate Space with old industry giant Lockheed Martin to work on offshore launch platforms for their small capacity Alpha launch vehicle. The not-quite 100 foot tall Alpha (~97 ft) rocket currently only launches from Space Launch Complex (SLC) 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
On Monday, Jonathan Caldwell, the vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Strategic and Missile Defense Systems, announced Lockheed Martin’s participation in this proposal in a post on his LinkedIn profile on May 4. He said it was a fusion of Lockheed Martin’s “legacy” in national security matters and “the innovative spirit” of the comparatively much younger companies of Firefly Aerospace and Seagate Space.
“The three companies will work together on mission‑application concepts and flight‑demonstration projects that leverage Seagate’s Gateway offshore launch platform,” Caldwell wrote. “This sea‑based launch facility, combined with Firefly’s responsive Alpha launch vehicle, will provide rapid, flexible access to space from diverse locations, an essential capability for tactical payloads and national‑security missions.”
Bear in mind that's it not a full month since Seagate Space announced a memorandum of understanding with Firefly to create off-shore infrastructure for its Alpha rockets, and now Firefly is announcing a partnership with Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin may be an "old space" or "space 1.0" company, but they sound like they're all-in on this project, too. I could imagine the younger engineers at Firefly perhaps learning some tricks from the Lockheed Martin graybeards.
“Partnering with Firefly to align our Gateway platform with their Alpha vehicle is a major step toward making offshore launch a practical reality for the industry,” said Sean Fortener, President & COO at Seagate Space, in a statement. “We’re building a platform designed for mobility, responsiveness, and global access – key factors that complement our current launch infrastructure.”
An artist’s interpretation of a Firefly Aerospace rocket atop a Seagate Space
Gateway Series spaceport. Graphic: Firefly Aerospace/Seagate Space
In a statement to Spaceflight Now, Caldwell said Lockheed Martin wanted to direct some of its future payloads to this aquatic undertaking in order to support the needs of the Department of Defense.
“With our mission understanding in missile defense and targets systems, we are well aware that our warfighter’s operational requirements are rapidly evolving to stay ahead of growing adversarial threats,” Caldwell said. “A unique, mobile, sea-based launch platform like this — which is not dependent on the availability of a fixed, terrestrial launch location — provides not only increased rapid responsive launch capabilities but also can help alleviate some of the traffic pressure on current ground launch facilities.”
“With more than 70 percent of the Earth covered by water, that greatly increases our mission flexibility by taking advantage of the platform’s mobility to generate multi-azimuth launch geometries driven today by limited availability for air launched target delivery and unconstrainted by typical land-based launch locations. Our payloads integrated with the Alpha rocket allow us to accelerate end-to-end delivery solutions for our customers that are focused on delivering effects at speed while leveraging commercial approaches. We’re involved in this project because it will get mission into the hands of our warfighters faster. Firefly’s flexible Alpha rocket will help Lockheed Martin rapidly launch future spacecraft, including new payload technologies. With Seagate Space potentially making any ocean our launch pad, this collaboration could redefine responsive space operations.”
While the Alpha currently only launches from Vandenberg's SLC (Space Launch Complex) 2, Firefly has been working toward expanding their options. First there was a partnership with Northrop Grumman to fly from Launch Pad 0A (LP-0A) at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) within the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. It's worth mentioning that the Antares 330, the launch vehicle Firefly is building for Northrop Grumman to resume launching CRS (Cargo Resupply Services) missions to the Space Station, is part of this agreement. The Wallops Flight Facility agreement was announced in 2024.
A few days after that was announced, Firefly said it was working with SSC Space (formerly the Swedish Space Corporation) to allow for Alpha rocket launches from the spaceport at the Esrange Space Center in Sweden. Firefly would use Launch Complex 3C for its missions. That was supposed to go into effect this year, but in a March 2026 press release, SSC Space said that an agreement with the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration pushed that back to 2028. That sounds to me like a Swedish government decision independent of what Firefly, Seagate Space and Lockheed Martin are doing.
Rapid deployment to diverse locations. Warfighter, huh?
ReplyDeleteHoo haw, what a laff.
Caldwell's statement reads like a bunch of boilerplate buzzwords.
Well, he's from Lockheed Martin, after all. That's the only message they know. It's an Odd Couple story for them to be working with companies like Firefly and Seagate. Wait... Odd Threesome instead of couple?
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