Firefly to Leverage Carbon Fiber Composites for Aeroshell in SkyFall Mars Mission

<p>Firefly Aerospace (Cedar Park, Texas, U.S.) has received a $13 million subcontract from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to manufacture, test and deliver the aeroshell for NASA's SkyFall mission to Mars, targeted for launch in late 2028. The SkyFall mission, managed by JPL, will deploy three heritage Mars helicopters to perform science and demonstrate airborne subsurface mapping and resource prospecting, paving the way for U.S. astronauts on Mars. </p><p>"NASA's SkyFall is Firefly's first award coming out of our new Gloworks innovation lab, which embodies our commitment to developing disruptive space technologies without disrupting our existing production lines," says Shea Ferring, Firefly CTO. "Our expertise in building large composite structures for both spacecraft and rockets gives us an advantage to enable critical planetary missions like SkyFall.