Pixxel Firefly-5

Pixxel Firefly-5 (alias FFLY-5) is a VNIR hyperspectral imaging satellite operated by Pixxel, launched 2025-08-26 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 NAOS rideshare mission from Vandenberg SFB.[^pixxel-launch2] It is the second of three satellites in Batch 2 of the Pixxel Firefly Phase 1 constellation, launched alongside Firefly-4 and Firefly-6 to complete the six-satellite initial deployment.

Firefly-5 carries Pixxel's proprietary Firefly hyperspectral imager covering the VNIR range. Spectral coverage is reported as 450-900 nm by the operator product page[^pixxel-firefly-page] and 470-850 nm by eoPortal.[^eoportal-pixxel] Both sources report more than 135 contiguous spectral bands; a Batch 2 press release also references 150+.[^pixxel-launch2] Spatial resolution is 5 m with a 40 km swath.[^pixxel-firefly-page] The satellite operates in a Sun-synchronous orbit at approximately 550 km altitude, 97.65 degree inclination, with an equatorial crossing around 10:00-11:00 local solar time.

The six-satellite Phase 1 constellation is designed for approximately daily revisit; single-satellite revisit is 17 days. Firefly-5 is uniform in design with its five constellation siblings and Pixxel has not published per-satellite payload differentiation.[^pixxel-firefly-page] Firefly-5 was commissioned as operational as of late 2025 per Pixxel press communications.[^pixxel-launch2]