Firefly Aerospace prepares Alpha rocket for 1st launch since explosive mishaps last year

A black rocket stage with white letters stands against a purple sky. — Firefly Aerospace is gearing up for the seventh-ever liftoff of its Alpha rocket. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

Firefly Aerospace is getting ready to launch its Alpha rocket after a 10-month hiatus.

The Texas-based company is targeting no earlier than Feb. 27 for the launch of its "Stairway to Seven" mission, which it hopes will restore confidence in its Alpha rocket after two explosive events grounded the vehicle last year.

"Stairway to Seven" will be the seventh launch for Alpha overall and its first since the "Message in a Booster" mission last April, which aimed to loft a prototype satellite for Lockheed Martin. But things didn't go well on that flight: The rocket's first stage broke apart moments after stage separation, resulting in the loss of the payload. That was followed by another mishap in September, when the booster originally intended for Alpha's seventh flight exploded during prelaunch testing.

Alpha's test stand and other other nearby facilities were spared any damage from September's "combustion event," Firefly wrote in an update, but the incident nonetheless added months to the company's development plans as a cause was investigated.

Firefly concluded that investigation in November, pinning the cause on "a process error during stage one integration that resulted in a minute hydrocarbon contamination." That finding ruled out a design flaw in the launch vehicle itself.

Now, Firefly says that Alpha's seventh mission is finally ready to fly. The mission was originally supposed to launch another Lockheed Martin payload, but Firefly has repurposed it as a test flight to reverify Alpha's systems using a demo payload.

The "Stairway to Seven" first stage completed a 20-second static test fire of its four Reaver engines on the launch pad at California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Feb. 6 and is currently progressing toward a Feb. 27 launch opportunity.

A black triangular mission path with a rocket with wings launching up some stairs. — The "Stairway to Seven" mission patch. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

"Stairway to Seven" will be the final flight of Alpha's Block I configuration, as Firefly continues upgrades to the launch vehicle to expand its capabilities.

"Flight 7 will test and validate key systems ahead of Firefly’s Block II configuration upgrade on Flight 8 that’s designed to enhance reliability and manufacturability across the vehicle," the company wrote on the mission's website.

Firefly has designed the Alpha Block II to be 7 feet (2.13 meters) taller than its 96.7-foot-tall (29.6-m) predecessor. It's manufactured with carbon composite components and features upgraded thermal protections and improved avionics and power systems, according to the company.

To date, only two of Alpha's six orbital missions have been fully successful, but Firefly is focused on more than just launch vehicles. The company's uncrewed Blue Ghost moon lander became the first private spacecraft ever to successfully complete a mission on the lunar surface. Blue Ghost touched down last March on its debut mission, delivering a suite of NASA-sponsored instruments in a milestone that underscored Firefly’s broader ambitions beyond Earth orbit.

Josh Dinner is the Staff Writer for Spaceflight at Space.com. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016. Josh has covered the evolution of NASA's commercial spaceflight partnerships and crewed missions from the Space Coast, as well as NASA science missions and more. He also enjoys building 1:144-scale model rockets and human-flown spacecraft. Find some of Josh's launch photography on Instagram and his website, and follow him on X, where he mostly posts in haiku.

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