Firefly secures contract to design satellite deorbiting mission

Firefly Aerospace has secured a contract from the US Department of War’s Defense Innovation Unit and Space Development Agency to develop a preliminary design for a satellite deorbiting mission. The work will cover a preliminary design review, or PDR, for a mission using the company’s Elytra orbital vehicle.

The proposed sequence would send Elytra into low Earth orbit before it maneuvers toward a designated aging satellite. The vehicle would conduct rendezvous and proximity operations, survey the spacecraft’s condition, and then perform the deorbiting service. The stated aim is to reduce the expanding debris population that threatens satellites and future missions across multiple Earth orbits.

Firefly says its proprietary system is designed to support three orbital regions: low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, and geostationary Earth orbit. Elytra’s high-thrust maneuverability, fuel reserves, and payload capacity are intended to help it alter its trajectory, match another object’s movement, and operate near it safely. Its avionics, composite structures, and propulsion architecture draw partly on systems used by Blue Ghost.

So what does this change in practice? If the design review is successfully completed, Firefly could become eligible to compete for the mission’s next phase, which may include launch, spacecraft operation, and the deorbiting campaign. For now, the contract establishes a design effort rather than a confirmed cleanup mission or service in orbit.

Firefly is also preparing Elytra for a separate space domain awareness mission under another DIU contract, scheduled no earlier than 2027. Beyond servicing, the company’s extended agreement with Lockheed Martin could cover up to 25 Alpha rocket launches through 2031, using the upgraded Alpha Block II configuration for payloads in the 1,000-kilogram class.