Firefly Aerospace Alpha launch vehicle on the pad ahead of the VICTUS NOX mission in September 2023. Photo: Firefly Aerospace

Firefly Aerospace will support another U.S. Space Force Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission under a new Space Force contract valued at $21.81 million. The Space Force awarded Firefly Aerospace a contract to launch the VICTUS SOL TacRS mission on an Alpha rocket. 

This comes after Firefly Aerospace launched the VICTUS NOX TacRS mission in September of 2023. In the mission, Firefly completed the final launch preparations in a 24-hour period after the Space Force called up the mission, and launched a Millennium Space Systems satellite within 27 hours of the launch order. 

Firefly is also preparing for the VICTUS HAZE mission expected to occur no later than fall 2025, in which it will launch a True Anomaly Jackal spacecraft. True Anomaly selected Firefly for the VICTUS HAZE mission in October of 2024. 

“The VICTUS SOL launch will provide the operational capability to have a launch vehicle and space vehicle on standby while we continue to launch other commercial and government missions until we’re called up by the Space Force,” said Firefly CEO Jason Kim. “We’re further improving our readiness to provide a rapid response capability.”

Space Systems Command said in a release that this mission will advance “its ability to deliver fast and more agile in-orbit response capabilities to warfighters.” 

SSC’s Space Safari program office is the end-to-end mission lead for the TacRS mission. SSC’s Small Launch and Targets division within the Assured Access to Space enterprise is responsible for procuring and executing the VICTUS SOL launch service using the Orbital Services Program (OSP)-4 contract. Space Safari will oversee procurement of the VICTUS SOL space and ground segments, end-to-end integration, and operational support.