The Ukrainian-based aerospace company Firefly Aerospace has concluded a $30 million deal for the production of rocket engines

The Ukrainian-based aerospace company Firefly Aerospace has entered into a deal with the American Astra worth $30 million for the production of rocket engines. The parties to the agreement did not publicly disclose its terms, but The Verge became aware of the details. They were published in September 2021.

According to the publication, Astra acquired a license from Firefly Aerospace to produce its own Reaver oxygen-kerosene engines. The agreement provides that Firefly will supply up to 50 Reaver rocket engines to the Astra plant in Alameda, California - at the end of spring 2021, the customer received an experimental engine for about $0.5 million, according to an internal document. This engine was dismantled by Astra engineers for a detailed study of the design, said an informed informant who wished to remain anonymous due to a non-disclosure agreement on trade secrets.

The Ukrainian-based aerospace company Firefly Aerospace has concluded a $30 million deal for the production of rocket engines

Firefly engines must provide an Astra delivery speed of "500 kg by 500 km."  The company's own launch vehicle, called Rocket, has already passed test launches by September 2021, but still has not entered orbit.  The latest versions of the rocket used an Astra proprietary engine called Delphin.

In early September 2021, Firefly launched its first Alpha rocket, it successfully launched, but later it was blown up due to the failure of one of the engines.

Astra CEO declined to comment on the details of the deal, but stressed that Astra does not buy engines directly from Firefly. Astra is buying intellectual property to produce it in-house, people briefed on the deal said.

I can't comment on any agreements with suppliers that we have, but I can tell you that we have said that all intellectual property required to produce all of our technologies will be owned by Astra, licensed by Astra or developed by Astra, Kemp said in a conversation  with The Verge.[1]

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