Expanding Texas Spacecraft Manufacturing
Firefly Aerospace Opens New Cleanroom in Texas to Build Twelve Spacecraft Simultaneously
Anonymous
Firefly Aerospace has completed a new cleanroom at its 144,000-square-foot Cedar Park, Texas, campus, expanding its spacecraft manufacturing capacity as demand for lunar and in-space services grows. Four times larger than the company’s existing cleanroom, the ISO Class 8 facility allows Firefly to assemble, integrate and test up to 12 lunar landers and orbital vehicles simultaneously. The Texas Space Commission funded the expansion, which was marked by a ceremony attended by state and federal officials and representatives from NASA’s Moon Base Program and Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. Firefly says the added capacity will support five additional contracted lunar missions involving its Blue Ghost landers and Elytra orbiters, as well as development of larger lunar landers and defense-related spacecraft services.
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Firefly COO Ramon Sanchez said the facility is intended to make the Moon more accessible through “reliable, high-cadence spacecraft” for government and commercial customers, while supporting the company’s lunar delivery and in-space-services business.
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Beyond its lunar missions, Firefly holds two Defense Innovation Unit spacecraft contracts focused on space-domain awareness and deorbit services, broadening the facility’s potential use beyond commercial and NASA-related work.
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Firefly is scaling its spacecraft technology into a larger lunar lander designed to deliver heavier cargo, terrain vehicles, infrastructure and power systems to the Moon.
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The ribbon-cutting participants identified in the company announcement included Firefly CEO Jason Kim and Vice President of Spacecraft Ray Allensworth, along with Texas Space Commission Executive Director Norman Garza and Board Chair Gwen Griffin, and NASA officials Adam Schlesinger and Jim Geffre.
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