Firefly hires new CEO ahead of second launch

第二次发射前，萤火虫航空公司新任首席执行官上任

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Firefly Aerospace has hired an executive with extensive experience in aerospace and defense as its next CEO as the company gears up for its second orbital launch attempt.

佛罗里达州泰图斯维尔。-萤火虫航空公司已经聘请了一名在航空航天和国防方面具有丰富经验的高管作为下一任首席执行官，该公司正在为第二次轨道发射的尝试做准备。

Firefly announced Sept. 1 that it hired Bill Weber as its new chief executive, effective immediately. Weber takes over from Peter Schumacher, a partner at majority owner AE Industrial Partners (AEI) who had served as interim chief executive since mid-June, when co-founder Tom Markusic stepped down as chief executive.

9月1日，萤火虫航空公司宣布，聘请比尔·韦伯为新任首席执行官，决定立即生效。韦伯接替彼得·舒马赫，彼得·舒马赫是大股东私募股权公司AE Industrial Partners的合伙人，自6月中旬联合创始人汤姆·马库西辞去首席执行官一职以来，彼得·舒马赫一直担任该公司的临时首席执行官。

Weber was previously president and chief executive of KeyW Corporation, a cyberspace operations and geospatial intelligence company serving the national security community. Jacobs acquired KeyW in 2019 for $815 million.

韦伯曾是控股公司KeyW Corporation的总裁兼首席执行官，KeyW Corporation是一家为国家安全边界服务的网络空间运营和地理空间情报公司。雅各布斯在2019年以8.15亿美元收购了KeyW。

Before KeyW, he was an executive at several other companies supporting the federal government in national security and diplomacy, including XLA, Kaseman and GTSI Corporation. He also was a founding partner of First Light Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) seeking to merge with a company in the aerospace and defense markets.

在KeyW就职之前，韦伯在其他几家在国家安全和外交方面支持联邦政府的公司担任高管，包括XLA、Kaseman和GTSI公司。他也是First Light Acception Corporation的开创合伙人，这是一家特殊目的收购公司，其寻求与航空航天和国防市场的一家公司进行合并。

“Bill is a proven leader with an impressive record of helping companies successfully navigate change, making him the clear choice to lead Firefly during this transitional growth period,” Schumacher said in a statement. “His deep experience and strong relationships across many areas of the aerospace and defense landscape will be invaluable as Firefly transitions to full-rate production across its portfolio of products.”

舒马赫在一份声明中说：“韦伯是一位久经考验的领导者，在帮助公司成功应对变革方面有着令人印象深刻的表现，让他成为在这个过渡增长时期萤火虫的领导者是明确的选择。”“随着萤火虫在其产品组合中向全速生产过渡，韦伯在航空航天和国防领域的许多方面的丰富经验和牢固关系将成为无价之宝。”

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead a company on the forefront of critical, leading-edge space transportation solutions,” Weber said in the statement. “I look forward to collaborating with the Firefly and AEI teams at this critical juncture in the company’s development.”

韦伯在声明中说：“这是一个千载难逢的机会，可以带领公司走在关键的、领先的空间运输解决方案的前沿。”“在公司发展的关键时刻，我期待与萤火虫和AEI团队合作。”

The hiring of Weber comes as Firefly gears up for its second attempt to launch its Alpha rocket. The company announced Aug. 17 that, after completing a static-fire test of the rocket’s first stage, it was planning a launch for Sept. 11 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The “To the Black” mission, scheduled for liftoff at 6 p.m. Eastern, will carry several cubesats to deploy into low Earth orbit.

在雇佣韦伯之际，萤火虫正准备第二次尝试发射阿尔法火箭。该公司8月17日宣布，在完成火箭第一级静火测试后，计划于9月11日在加州范登堡太空部队基地进行发射。“前往黑暗”任务定于美国东部时间下午6点发射，将携带几颗立方体卫星，部署到低地球轨道。

The launch will come a little more than a year after the failed inaugural Alpha launch, also from Vandenberg. In that launch, one of four engines in the rocket’s first stage shut down 15 seconds into flight because of a faulty electrical connection. Range safety terminated the flight about two and a half minutes after liftoff.

这次发射将在阿尔法首次发射失败后一年多进行，地点依然是在范登堡。在那次发射中，火箭第一级的四个发动机中的一个在飞行15秒时因电气连接故障关闭。起飞后大约两分半钟，靶场安全终止了飞行。

In addition to its Alpha launch vehicle, Firefly announced Aug. 8 an agreement with Northrop Grumman to partner on a new version of the Antares rocket. The Antares 330 will use a new first stage provided by Firefly, replacing the existing Antares first stage built in Ukraine and using Russian engines. The first Antares 330 launch is scheduled for as soon as 2024.

除了阿尔法运载火箭，萤火虫8月8日宣布，其与诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司达成协议，合作开发新版本的安塔瑞斯火箭。安塔瑞斯330将使用萤火虫提供的新第一级，取代乌克兰建造的现有安塔瑞斯第一级，使用俄罗斯发动机。第一次心宿二330发射最早定于2024年。

Firefly is also continuing development of its Blue Ghost lunar lander, part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander at Firefly, said at an Aug. 24 meeting the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group that the company has 50 people working fulltime on Blue Ghost for a 2024 mission to Mare Crisium.

萤火虫还在继续开发其蓝色幽灵月球着陆器，这是美国宇航局商业月球有效载荷服务计划的一部分。萤火虫着陆器的总工程师威尔·库根在8月24日的月球探索分析小组会议上表示，该公司有50人在蓝鬼号上全职工作，以执行2024年的危海任务。