True Anomaly’s Jackal autonomous orbiting vehicle in production. Photo: True Anomaly
True Anomaly on Thursday said it has selected Firefly Aerospace to launch its Jackal spacecraft for the U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS HAZE Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission expected to occur no later than fall 2025.
Firefly will also launch two additional missions for True Anomaly between 2025 and 2027.
The Space Force in April awarded separate contracts to Rocket Lab and True Anomaly for VICTUS HAZE to demonstrate rendezvous and proximity operations with commercially-built assets to counter irresponsible behavior on orbit. True Anomaly will use an upgraded version of its Jackal autonomous orbital vehicle that can perform multi-orbit missions with a high acceleration and high delta-V propulsion system that is being developed with its propulsion supplier, Agile Space Industries.
Rocket Lab said previously it will launch its spacecraft aboard its own Electron rocket.
The VICTUS HAZE mission follows the VICTUS NOX TacRS mission, which involved the rapid launch of a satellite provided by a Boeing business unit aboard Firefly’s Alpha launch vehicle on Sept. 15, 2023 for a space domain awareness mission.
True Anomaly described four phases it is executing for VICTUS HAZE: build, hot standby, launch, and on-orbit operations. The Colorado-based satellite manufacturer and software developer will complete development and testing of Jackal at its GravityWorks facility in Denver, transport it to Firefly’s SLC-2 payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., for fueling, integration, and encapsulation in Alpha’s fairing, and then both companies will enter the hot-standby phase.
Once the Space Force provides the launch notice, Firefly has 24 hours to bring the payload fairing to the launch pad, mate it to Alpha, fuel the rocket, and launch within the first window. Once deployed, True Anomaly will begin on-orbit operations with Jackal that will include operating near Rocket Lab’s spacecraft.
True Anomaly said the two additional launches with Firefly gives it access to responsive capacity.
This story was first published by Defense Daily
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