[7][4] It grew to 43 employees by November 2014,[4] and purchased 215 acres (87 ha) of land for an engine test and manufacturing[8] facility in Briggs, Texas, 50 miles (80 km) north of Austin.

[14] Within the same month, Virgin Orbit filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Firefly and two of its officers.

[1] The owner of Noosphere Ventures, Max Polyakov,[19] committed to fully fund Firefly through at least its first two launches.

[23] The Firefly R&D center was announced to become, over time, a place of work for more than 150 employees, and is equipped with the largest 3D-printer in Ukraine, intended for industrial manufacturing of high-quality metal parts.

[24] On October 10, 2018, Firefly Aerospace and smallsat developer York Space Systems announced a partnership to offer customers a combined package of satellite and launch services.

[29] In December 2019, a group of primary shareholders of Firefly Space Systems filed a lawsuit alleging fraud and intentional bankruptcy of the company by Tom Markusic.

According to the defendants, including Polyakov, the lawsuit was provocative and the plaintiffs' claims unfounded, three years after the updated Firefly Aerospace was a significant success.

[30] In February 2021, NASA awarded approximately US$93.3 million to Firefly Aerospace to develop exploration technologies for Artemis Commercial Moon Delivery in 2023.

[36] In August 2022, Northrop Grumman announced that it had contracted Firefly Aerospace to build the Antares rocket's new 300-series' first stage, which is similar to Firefly's in-development MLV launch vehicle, and features the same composite structures as well as seven Miranda engines producing 7,200 kN (1,600,000 lbf) of thrust — substantially greater than the previous 200-series first stage.

Alpha completed all objectives (that Firefly had itself placed) for the mission, becoming the first orbital rocket to be powered by a tap-off cycle engine.

On September 14, 2023, Firefly successfully launched the Alpha rocket on its first mission for the United States Department of Defense, placing a spacecraft for Millenium Space into orbit and demonstrating rapid response launch for the United States Armed Forces.

[39] In 2024, it was announced that Firefly would compete with the likes of Rocket Lab and SpaceX for small satellite launch contracts with the United States Department of Defense.

[40] In July 2024, CEO Bill Weber resigned amid reports the company was investigating an alleged inappropriate relationship.

Alpha is designed to compete with vehicles like Rocket Lab's Electron, ISRO's PSLV, ABL SS's RS1, and Northrop Grumman's Pegasus.

[43] Alpha performed its first partially successful orbital launch on October 1, 2022, after an unsuccessful first attempt on September 3, 2021.

[46][45] Firefly's fourth launch on December 22, 2023 was also partially successful, with the second stage failing to perform its circularization burn, leaving its payload in an elliptical orbit instead.

"[55] In April 2024, the company reported on social media that it was progressing and on track with Miranda engine testing for the MLV.

[56] In mid-2024, the company added that the MLV's first stage is being architected for return to launch site landings, and hope to have the technology refined by flight 6 of the vehicle.

[63] On June 9, 2019, Firefly Aerospace announced that it had signed an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which owns the intellectual property of the Beresheet lunar lander design, to build a lunar lander named Genesis based on Beresheet.

[66] Due to changing CLPS specifications, Firefly determined that Genesis no longer fit NASA's requirements and started work on the Blue Ghost in 2021.

This engine type eliminates traditional gas generators and instead opts to "tap off" the main combustion chamber, utilizing the high heat and pressure within it to drive the pumps.

Reaver is fixed-throttle, meaning it runs at full power from ignition to first stage shutdown (eschewing the typical throttle-down performed by many vehicles at Max-Q to reduce aerodynamic loads) and is ignited with the pyrophoric combination TEA-TEB (also used on the SpaceX Merlin and Rocketdyne F-1).

Miranda is a liquid-fueled rocket engine currently being developed to power the company’s MLV (Medium Launch Vehicle).

[70] The Antares previously used a Ukrainian-built first stage with the Russian-built RD-181 engine and production ceased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[72] To support production of the Miranda engine, the MLV and the first-stage for the Antares 300, Firefly expanded its Briggs, Texas facility from 92,000 to 207,000 square feet (8,500 to 19,200 m2).

The company plans to restart the engine multiple times as the rocket performs a return-to-launch-site maneuver for a propulsive landing.

Elytra would allow smaller rockets (such as Firefly's own Alpha) to deliver larger payloads to more difficult orbits, and enable satellite relocation, servicing, mission extension, and deorbiting.