Launch
Firefly Aerospace
Firefly Alpha Block 2 | INCUS
- Mission
- rocket
- Pad
- Agency
Mission
INCUS
Earth Science
Low Earth Orbit
The Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) is a NASA Earth science mission led by Colorado State University that will investigate the behavior of tropical storms in order to better represent these storms in weather and climate models. It consists of 3 SmallSats flying in tight coordination to study why convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur exactly when and where they form. Each satellite will have a high frequency precipitation radar that observes rapid changes in convective cloud depth and intensities. 1 of the 3 satellites also will carry a microwave radiometer to provide the spatial content of the larger scale weather observed by the radars. By flying so closely together, the satellites will use the slight differences in when they make observations to apply a novel time-differencing approach to estimate the vertical transport of convective mass.
Status
To Be Determined
Current date is a placeholder or rough estimation based on unreliable or interpreted sources.
Pad
Launch Area 0 A
USA
LP-0A was first built for the failed Conestoga rocket program. The original launch tower was subsequently demolished in September 2008. A new pad facility was built from 2009 to 2011 for Orbital Sciences Taurus II, now renamed Antares.
Latitude: 37.8337
longitude: -75.4881
Map
Location
America/New_York
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, USA
Wallops Flight Facility is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and north-northeast of Norfolk. The facility is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and primarily serves to support science and exploration missions for NASA and other federal agencies. WFF includes an extensively instrumented range to support launches of more than a dozen types of sounding rockets; small expendable suborbital and orbital rockets; high-altitude balloon flights carrying scientific instruments for atmospheric and astronomical research; and, using its Research Airport, flight tests of aeronautical research aircraft, including uncrewed aerial vehicles.
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Location Image
Rocket
Firefly Alpha Block 2
Firefly Alpha (Firefly α) is a two-stage orbital expendable launch vehicle developed by the American aerospace company Firefly Aerospace to cover the commercial small satellite launch market. Alpha is intended to provide launch options for both full vehicle and ride share customers. The Block 2 version features increased length and structural strength for both stages, optimized propellant tanks and consolidated in-house batteries and avionics.
Details
Min stage: 2
Max stage: 2m
Length: 31.6m
Diameter: 1.82
Pending launches: 4
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) capacity: 1030kg
Launch cost: US$15000000
Agency
Firefly Aerospace
Firefly Aerospace is an American private aerospace firm based in Austin, Texas, that develops small and medium-sized launch vehicles for commercial launches to orbit.
Details
CEO: Peter Schumacher
2014
Total launch count: 6
Successful launches: 3
Failed launches: 3
Pending launches: 5
