WASHINGTON — Launch company Firefly Aerospace has inked an agreement worth approximately $855 million to buy SciTec, a software-centric firm with expertise in big data analysis, missile tracking and remote sensing, with the deal expected to close by the end of the year.
The move positions Firefly to enter the industry feeding frenzy as the Pentagon readies acquisition plans under the Trump administration’s sweeping Golden Dome plan to build a comprehensive air and missile defense shield over the homeland.
“The acquisition of SciTec enhances our ability to support a growing number of defense missions and provides us with a significant operational advantage,” Firefly CEO Jason Kim said in a Sunday press release announcing the acquisition.
“SciTec’s mission-proven software and big data processing capabilities provide warfighters with rapid, accurate information to enable informed decisions that protect our homeland from emerging threats. These capabilities significantly enhance our ability to deliver integrated, software-defined solutions for critical national security imperatives, particularly Golden Dome,” he said.
Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, told Breaking Defense the acquisition brings Firefly more than Golden Dome-related tech.
“Golden Dome is a motivator for sure, but this deal also provides Firefly with diversified revenue streams. SciTec is cash flow positive, and helps Firefly evolve from a resource-intensive startup to a mature, money-making company,” Henry said.
SciTec in 2021 won a Space Development Agency contract to demonstrate mission data processing software for battle management command, control, and communications for its first prototype Tracking Layer missile warning/missile tracking satellites. The firm also is under contract with Space Systems Command to software to enable the sprawling, and troubled, Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) ground system for the Space Force’s legacy Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) missile warning satellites and two future constellations: the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR), and the Resilient Missile Warning/Missile Tracking — Medium Earth Orbit.
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Firefly is currently on contract for two Space Force Victus-series missions under the service’s Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program aimed at demonstration rapid launch capability. The Victus program also has been serving as a testing ground for space domain awareness satellites with more maneuverability than the six current Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) neighborhood watch birds.
Firefly was subcontracted to provide launch services for True Anomaly, which in September 2024 won one of two Space Force contracts (along with Rocket Lab) for the Victus Haze mission that will involve a rendezvous and proximity operation. In February, Firefly was tapped by the service to undertake the slightly mysterious Victus Sol mission that will launch an operational satellite (presumably also with a maneuvering capacity).
True Anomaly and Rocket Lab were expected to loft their Victus Haze missions this year, but the Space Force has delayed True Anomaly’s launch due the failure in April of a separate launch undertaken by Firefly’s the sixth flight of the Alpha rocket, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of Space Systems Command, told reporters on Sept. 24.
He explained that while the launch was carrying a payload for Lockheed Martin and not the Space Force, the service needs to understand what went wrong.
“So we always look at crossovers,” Garrant said, “to make sure that we’re not going to repeat the same mistakes, if you will. We’re still moving forward, working with our partner to make sure that they’re ready.”
To make matters worse for Firefly, on Sept. 30 the booster for the Alpha Flight 7 (also to carry a Lockheed Martin satellite) blew up on the launch pad in a pre-flight ground test.
According to stock market analysis website The Motley Fool, Firefly’s stock plummeted by 35.4 percent last month due to the problems, following a strong start with its initial public offering in August.
Following the wrap up in August of the Federal Aviation Administration’s investigation into the April launch failure, Jordi Paredes Garcia, Firefly’s chief engineer on the Alpha program said that the company took on board “lessons learned” and undertook “corrective actions” to improve the rocket’s reliability.
“At Firefly, technical challenges aren’t roadblocks — they’re catalysts,” said Jordi Paredes Garcia, Alpha Chief Engineer at Firefly Aerospace. “Each mission provides us more data and enables us to continuously improve, he wrote in a fact sheet on the Firefly website.
As for the SciTech purchase, the move broadly did not appear to some in industry to be a huge surprise.
Philip Hover-Smoot, CEO of Scout Space, posted Sunday on LinkedIn: “Yet another space domain awareness capability provider snapped up by an aspiring prime looking to increase pWin on Golden Dome pursuits. Not the first, not the last.”