WASHINGTON \u2014 Firefly Aerospace\u2019s Alpha rocket successfully returned to flight March 11, launching a technology demonstration mission more than 10 months after the rocket\u2019s previous launch failed.<\/p>\n
Alpha lifted off at 8:50 p.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The company had scrubbed launch attempts of the \u201cStairway to Seven\u201d mission the previous two days because of minor technical issues.<\/p>\n
The vehicle\u2019s two stages performed as planned, including a later relight of the second-stage engine. The company did not disclose the planned or actual orbit achieved by the vehicle, but the webcast showed the rocket had reached an altitude of about 245 kilometers at the time the second-stage engine shut down as scheduled about eight minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n
The rocket was carrying what the company described as a \u201cdemonstrator payload\u201d for Lockheed Martin but did not provide additional details.<\/p>\n
Firefly called the launch a complete success. \u201cAlpha Flight 7 was flawlessly executed with all mission requirements completed, further proving the resiliency, innovation and passion of the Firefly team,\u201d Jason Kim, chief executive of Firefly, said in a post-launch statement.<\/p>\n
The launch was the first for Alpha since a failure on an April 2025 mission<\/a> carrying a Lockheed Martin technology demonstration satellite. The upper stage failed to reach orbit after an energetic event during stage separation ripped away the nozzle of the stage\u2019s engine, reducing its performance.<\/p>\n Firefly announced in August that it traced the failure to structural failure of the first stage<\/a> caused by higher-than-expected aeroheating of the stage during ascent, linked to a different flight profile for the mission compared with previous flights. The stage suffered structural failure just after stage separation, creating a shock wave that tore off the upper stage\u2019s engine nozzle.<\/p>\n The company said in September it was working toward a return to flight of the rocket in the \u201ccoming weeks,\u201d but the first stage for that mission was destroyed in an explosion<\/a> on a company test stand in Texas in late September.<\/p>\n