WASHINGTON — A Firefly Alpha rocket left a Lockheed Martin satellite in an orbit lower than planned, or not in orbit at all, after an anomaly during launch April 29.
The Alpha rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 9:37 a.m. Eastern. A launch attempt the previous day was scrubbed because of problems with ground support equipment that could not be resolved before the launch window closed for the day.
The launch of the FLTA0006 mission appeared to go as planned until stage separation about 2 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff. A cloud suddenly formed between the two stages, and video showed what appeared to be debris falling away as the upper stage continued its ascent.
A camera on the upper stage also showed debris falling away from it seconds after separation. The nozzle for the single Lightning engine in the upper stage appeared to be seriously damaged, if not missing entirely.
“Following a nominal liftoff of Firefly’s Alpha rocket, there was a mishap during first stage separation for the FLTA006 mission that impacted the Stage 2 Lightning engine nozzle, putting the vehicle in a lower than planned orbit. We are working with our Lockheed Martin customer, the Space Force, and FAA to conduct a thorough investigation and determine the root cause,” Firefly stated about 50 minutes after liftoff.
The company did not give details about the orbit or how it differed from the planned orbit, which was not disclosed before liftoff. The company reposted the update about a half-hour later, missing the phrase “putting the vehicle in a lower than planned orbit.”
The payload for the launch was a LM 400 satellite on a technology demonstration mission for Lockheed Martin. The company planned to use the mission to provide a test of the mid-sized satellite’s capabilities.
“We’re really focused on trying to get the full lifetime experience of the spacecraft on a relatively accelerated timeline,” said Bob Behnken, vice president of exploration, products and technology strategy at Lockheed Martin, during an April 7 media event.
Lockheed had planned that, after completing on-orbit checkouts, it would put the satellite through “day in the life” operational tests as well as demonstrations of its SmartSat software to enable reconfiguration of spacecraft system. That would conclude with a controlled deorbit of the spacecraft after about a 30-day mission.
LM 400 is “capable of carrying out a wide range of missions,” he said, supporting payloads of up to 1,100 kilograms. The bus is under contract for a classified customer.
What became noteworthy about the launch was not the payload but an extended delay. Firefly had been working towards a mid-March launch but called off the launch, citing a lack of range availability. Both the rocket and satellite were ready, Firefly and Lockheed Martin said.
“We’re facing challenges from a resource protection perspective out at Vandenberg,” Behnken said at the April 7 event. “There are a lot of things going on out that they have limited our ability to execute the mission.”
“There are facilities where overflight needs to be managed very carefully,” he said when asked to explain what those “resource protection” constraints were for the launch. “A new rocket, like Firefly’s rocket, does have some restrictions in terms of what risk posture the range needs to assume.”
He added that those restrictions were not linked to Falcon 9 launches at Vandenberg. While he did not into additional detail, industry sources said a likely factor in the delays was the March 7 landing of the U.S. Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane at Vandenberg. The runway and related facilities at Vandenberg used by the X-37B are close to Firefly’s launch pad.
This was the sixth launch of Alpha. Only the third launch, of the Victus Nox responsive space mission in September 2023, and the fifth launch, of a set of NASA sponsored cubesats in July 2024, were completely successful as judged by outside observers. The first Alpha launch in September 2021 failed when the rocket lost control two and a half minutes after liftoff.
Alpha reached orbit on its second launch in October 2022, but appeared to place its payloads into lower orbits than planned, causing them to quickly reenter. Firefly considered the launch a success nonetheless. Alpha’s fourth launch in December 2023 left its payload, another Lockheed Martin tech demo satellite, in an elliptical transfer orbit with a low perigee. Firefly later concluded a software problem kept the upper stage from performing a second burn to circularize the orbit.
