Will Be Home To More Than 150 Employees

Orbital launch vehicle developer Firefly Aerospace has officially opened a Research and Development (R&D) center in the city of Dnipro, Ukraine (Firefly Ukraine).

The new R&D center will further enable the world-class engineering teams at Firefly Aerospace to design and manufacture components of launch vehicles and launch systems. Firefly Ukraine, which will be home to more than 150 employees, is equipped with the largest 3D-printer in Ukraine, intended for industrial manufacturing of high-quality metal parts.

Firefly Aerospace was honored by the presence of the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, during the opening ceremony of the Dnipro R&D center.

"Firefly expects to be the first new space company to obtain a US Government Technical  Assistance Agreement (TAA) facilitating design collaboration between the US and Ukraine," said John Isella, Director of International Business Development for Firefly and a resident of Dnipro. "This collaboration, once approved, will leverage the knowledge base in Dnipro and strengthen our business case. Firefly U.S. is looking forward to working with Firefly Ukraine in compliance with all U.S. export control requirements. Both companies have implemented robust programs designed to ensure compliance now and in the future."

"We plan to launch the first Firefly Alpha in the third quarter of 2019. By 2021, our mass production facilities will support two Alpha launches per month. This will enable our customers to purchase dedicated launches, allowing them to go directly to the orbit of their choosing, according to their schedule," said Firefly founder Dr. Max Polyakov.

"Our U.S.-based team is incredibly impressed with the engineering skills and manufacturing capability available in Ukraine," said CEO Dr. Tom Markusic. "The growth of our company to include these new team members will allow us to dramatically accelerate the pace of development of our future Firefly launch vehicles."

Headquartered in Cedar Park, TX, Firefly currently has additional offices in Washington, D.C. and Tokyo, Japan. The opening of the Dnipro R&D center is a significant milestone towards achieving future Firefly goals.

(Image provided with Firefly Aerospace news release)

FMI: www.fireflyspace.com