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Firefly Aerospace conducts first hot fire of new Miranda rocket engine

Firefly Aerospace's Miranda rocket engine hot fire test (Credit Firefly Aerospace)

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This week, Firefly Aerospace announced their first successful hot fire test of their Miranda rocket engine that will be the first stage of Northrop Grumman’s Antares 330 and their own Medium Lift Vehicle.

The test is a major step forward for the company as they are aiming to meet a mid-2025 launch target for the new rocket.

The MLV (and Antares 330) will utilize 7 Miranda engines on the first stage and will be capable of producing 1.6 million pounds of thrust and the ability to deliver up to 10,000 kg of payload to the International Space Station on the Antares 330.

A render of the Medium Launch Vehicle (Credit Firefly Aerospace)

The MLV will be capable of sending up to 16,000 kg low Earth orbit as it will utilize the Miranda vacuum engine whereas the Antares 330 will use a Castor 30XL solid-fueled rocket motor for its first launches before an eventual transition to the Miranda vacuum engine.

The Miranda engine uses liquid oxygen and rocket propellant-1 (RP-1), and triethylaluminium-triethylborane to ignite the engine, which produces the quick green flash seen in the photo above.  The MLV will stand 55.7 meters (183 feet) tall and will have a 5.2-meter payload fairing

CEO of Firefly Aerospace, Bill Weber, had this to say, “The incredible progress on our Miranda engines – designed, built, and tested in-house in just over a year – is another example of Firefly setting a new standard in the industry, building on the legacy of Firefly’s rapidly developed Reaver and Lightning engines, Miranda is the fastest propulsion system we’ve built and tested to date. This achievement reflects our rapid, iterative culture and our vertically integrated approach that allows us to quickly scale up the flight-proven engine architecture from our small launch vehicle, Alpha, to our Medium Launch Vehicle.”

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The next step for Firefly will be a full-duration hot-fire of the Mirdan engine that will last approximately 206 seconds.

As for what’s next for the company, they are targeting a launch in December for Flight 004 of their Alpha rocket that will carry a Lockheed Martin electronically steerable antennae payload demonstrator to low Earth orbit.

If you’d like to see how the Alpha Rockets Reaver engine starts in slow motion, check out this video below!

Questions or comments? Shoot me an email at rangle@teslarati.com, or Tweet me @RDAnglePhoto.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla gets new Street-high price target with high hopes for autonomy domination

“We believe Tesla could reach a $2 trillion market cap early 2026 in a bull case scenario and $3 trillion by the end of 2026 as full-scale volume production begins of the autonomous and robotics roadmap.”

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Credit: Tesla Europe and Middle East | X

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a new Street-high price target from Wedbush’s Dan Ives today, who cited high hopes for the company’s prowess in the autonomous sector.

Ives boosted his price target from $500 to $600 today, reflecting the firm’s view that “an accelerated AI path for the company is now on the horizon and investors are underestimating the transformation underway at the company.”

In a new note written to investors on Friday, Ives cited that Tesla’s next stage of growth has arrived as Elon Musk has re-entered his role as a “wartime CEO,” which gives the company a huge advantage over its competitors.

Musk, when fully committed to Tesla, does his best work, and Ives believes the company’s mark on the autonomous sector will continue to expand with the help of the Trump White House.

He wrote:

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“Musk is now driving Tesla into its next stage of growth as ‘wartime CEO,’ and we expect Robotaxis to be rolled out aggressively to over 30 US cities within the next year. We estimate the AI and autonomous opportunity is worth at least $1 trillion alone for Tesla, and we fully expect under a Trump White House over the coming yea,r these key initiatives will now get fast-tracked as the federal regulatory spiderweb that Musk & Co. have encountered over the past few years around FSD/autonomous clears significantly under Trump. Trump wants the US to stay ahead of China in this AI Arms Race, and autonomous is a key factor in who wins AI….with Tesla playing a major role on Robotaxis.”

Most of the note focused on the long-term outlook for Tesla, which is where some of the most drastic claims were made, including ones that estimated a monstrous valuation for the company moving forward.

Ives said Wedbush is under the impression that Tesla could reach a $2 trillion market cap as early as the beginning of 2026 and a $3 trillion valuation by the end of the year. This growth will be primarily driven by the AI portion of the company’s projects:

“We believe Tesla could reach a $2 trillion market cap early 2026 in a bull case scenario and $3 trillion by the end of 2026 as full-scale volume production begins of the autonomous and robotics roadmap. The AI valuation will start to get unlocked in the Tesla story, and we believe the march to an AI-driven valuation for TSLA over the next 6-9 months has now begun in our view with FSD and autonomous penetration of Tesla’s installed base and the acceleration of Cybercab in the US representing the golden goose for Musk & Co.”

In the near term, the only true issue at hand is deliveries, which Tesla should likely have a strong quarter thanks to the removal of the $7,500 EV tax credit. Ives says he expects a beat of Q3 numbers, driven by an “improving demand out of China.”

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He also said that while he expects this quarter to be strong, Tesla should aim to return to a run-rate of 500,000 deliveries every quarter, equating to approximately 2 million units per year. This will be driven by new, more affordable models, with the tax credit going away:

“On the near-term delivery front we are seeing a stabilization of demand globally that should enable Tesla to beat the Street’s 3Q delivery number with improving demand out of China. Getting back to a ~500k quarterly run-rate will be important as Tesla now looks to introduce new models to its customer base in 2026. There continues to be weak pockets in Europe but we believe Tesla is now starting to see signs of improvement in demand with a stronger growth trajectory into 2026.”

Tesla shares are up over 1.7 percent so far today, trading at around $430.

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Astra CEO shades SpaceX over employee workload and Starbase

Elon Musk once stated that no one ever changed the world working just 40 hours a week.

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Credit: SpaceX

Elon Musk once stated that no one ever changed the world working just 40 hours a week. This was something that is openly known among his companies. They have the potential to change the world, but they require a lot of hours.

SpaceX’s working environment was recently criticized by Chris Kemp, the chief executive officer of Astra. During some remarks at the Berkeley Space Symposium 2025 earlier this month, Kemp shared some sharp remarks about the Elon Musk-led private space enterprise.

SpaceX working conditions and Starbase

As noted in a report from Ars Technica, Kemp discussed a variety of topics during his talk. These included Astra’s successes and failures, as well as his thoughts on other players in the spaceflight industry. To be fair to Kemp, he practically shaded every major rival, calling Firefly’s engine “garbage,” dubbing Blue Origin as slow, and stating that Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket is “too small.”

SpaceX also received some colorful words from the Astra CEO. According to Kemp, SpaceX is leading the way in the spaceflight industry and Elon Musk is admirable in the way that he is willing to fail in order to move quickly. He did, however, highlight that Astra offers a significantly better working environment than SpaceX.

“It’s more fun than SpaceX, because we’re not on the border of Mexico where they’ll chop your head off if you accidentally take a left turn. And you don’t have to live in a trailer. And we don’t make you work six and a half days a week, 12 hours a day. It’s appreciated if you do, but not required,” Kemp said.

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Elon Musk’s demands

It is known that Elon Musk demands quite a lot from his employees. However, it is also known that Musk-led companies move very fast and, in more ways than one, they have accomplished world-changing feats. Tesla, for example, has practically ushered in the era of the modern electric vehicle, and SpaceX has made space attainable through its reusable rockets. With this in mind, employees at Musk’s companies, and this of course includes SpaceX, are likely proud of their long work hours. 

No one could probably go to Mars in this lifetime with a team that really works just 40 hours a week, after all.

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Tesla Model Y makes dramatic comeback in Sweden with 492% rise in registrations

The rebound marks a sharp turnaround for the electric vehicle maker.

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Credit: Tesla China

Tesla registrations in Sweden surged in September, with the Model Y climbing back to the top spot among fully electric vehicles in the country. The rebound marks a sharp turnaround for the electric vehicle maker, with new Model Y figures showing an impressive 492% increase compared to August.

Strong rebound after difficult year

The Model Y had previously slipped to fourth place in Sweden’s rankings, and even with incentives such as zero-interest financing, momentum had been challenged throughout much of the year. That is, at least, until now, with September’s results suggesting a notable recovery for the best-selling Model Y.

Data from Car.info indicates that the Model Y has become Sweden’s most newly registered car in September. Compared to August’s figures, September’s Model Y registrations have seen a stunning 492% rise. It should be noted, however, that year-over-year registrations are still down in the country, as noted in a CarUp report.

European production sees positive trend

Tesla executives have pointed to the company’s broader strength in Europe. Gigafactory Berlin head André Thierig told German outlet dpa that sales have improved enough to prompt revised production targets for the third and fourth quarters. “We currently have very good sales figures and have therefore revised our production plans,” Thierig said, noting that the factory is operating at full capacity.

Apart from the Model Y’s momentum, used Teslas are also starting to see positive trends in Sweden. As per recent reports, electric car dealer Carla, which has grown into Sweden’s second-largest used EV retailer, Tesla resale values jumped nearly 10% between June and August. So notable was the rise in consumer interest in used Teslas that the vehicles ended up helping Carla rebound into profitability.

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