Firefly Targets Late Fall For Alpha Aerospike Rocket Tests.

The article reports on the plan of low-cost launcher Firefly Space Systems to conduct the first development test of its Alpha vehicle's pressure-fed FRE-2 aerospike rocket engine in 2016. Topics covered include the comment of Firefly co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Tom Markusic on the aerospike concept, the design of the engine, and refinement of the FRE-2 configuration and extension of the spike with the help of Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin.