Firefly Aerospace has completed a new cleanroom at its spacecraft manufacturing facility in Cedar Park, Texas, expanding production capacity for its Blue Ghost lunar landers and Elytra orbital vehicles, which incorporate carbon-composite structures. The new facility is four times the size of the company's existing cleanroom and forms part of its 144,000-square-foot spacecraft campus.
The composite content spans several structural and pressure-related components of Blue Ghost. Its four landing legs use lightweight carbon composites and crush-core honeycomb to absorb touchdown loads. The lander also incorporates 49 struts made with high-strength, lightweight carbon composites to provide structural rigidity. Its two pressurant tanks and four propellant tanks are overwrapped with carbon fiber.
The same composite technology platform extends to Firefly's orbital vehicles. The company's Elytra spacecraft use carbon-composite structures derived from systems developed for Blue Ghost Mission 1. This common technology base allows the company to apply flight-proven spacecraft structures across lunar and orbital missions.
The new cleanroom will support a dedicated assembly line capable of handling up to 12 Blue Ghost landers and Elytra orbital vehicles simultaneously. Both cleanrooms are rated ISO Class 8, providing controlled environments for spacecraft assembly, integration, and testing. The facility was funded through a grant from the Texas Space Commission.
The capacity expansion comes as Firefly builds out its lunar mission pipeline. Following Blue Ghost Mission 1, the company has five additional lunar missions under contract involving Blue Ghost landers and Elytra orbiters. It is also developing a larger lander designed to deliver heavier lunar cargo, terrain vehicles, infrastructure, and power systems.
Firefly is also applying its spacecraft manufacturing capabilities to defense and other planetary programs. The company holds two spacecraft contracts with the Defense Innovation Unit for space domain awareness and deorbit services. Separately, Firefly has said its advanced carbon-composite technologies from Blue Ghost, Elytra, and its launch vehicles will support development of the SkyFall Mars aeroshell, including its backshell and heatshield.
The new cleanroom therefore adds production infrastructure around a spacecraft platform that already uses carbon composites across structural and pressure components. As Firefly moves toward higher-frequency lunar and orbital missions, the expanded facility provides additional capacity for assembling these lightweight spacecraft systems at greater production volumes.
Source: Firefly Aerospace | News
