California rocket launch: Firefly to investigate 'mishap' during test for Lockheed Martin
Firefly Aerospace, the Texas-based spaceflight company that manufactured the rocket in question, said the issue prevented a prototype satellite owned by Lockheed Martin from reaching orbit following an early-morning takeoff April 29. Instead, the satellite crashed into the Pacific Ocean with part of the rocket.
The failed mission was Firefly's sixth flight of its Alpha rocket, which it is developing for commercial launches to compete in a market long dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The company also achieved a major victory earlier in 2025 when it landed a spacecraft on the moon in March as part of a mission funded by NASA.
Firefly provided a live stream of the Tuesday, April 29, launch as its Alpha rocket ascended into low-Earth orbit following a takeoff at 6:37 a.m. PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California.
But during the webcast, several particles could be seen flying off the rocket during stage separation as the second stage propelled Lockheed's satellite further into space, Reuters reported. While the Lockheed satellite remained intact, a camera on the second stage showed its engine firing without its nozzle.
The mission, known as "message in a booster," was the first of a planned 25 launches in the next five years under an agreement between Firefly and Lockheed Martin.
The Alpha rocket's payload was a Lockheed demonstration satellite called LM 400 Technology Demonstrator, which is meant to advance space technologies for both commercial and military customers, like the Pentagon.
'Our customers have told us they need rapid advancement of new mission capabilities,' Bob Behnken, a director at Lockheed Martin Space, said in a statement at the time. 'This agreement with Firefly further diversifies our access to space, allowing us to continue quickly flight demonstrating the cutting-edge technology we are developing for them."
The Alpha rocket itself is classified as a small-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying more than 2,200 pounds of cargo to orbit.
Firefly said in a mission update that it will investigate the cause of the "mishap" with Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Space Force and the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial launches.
Engineers believe the problem occurred during separation of Alpha's core stage booster with its second stage less than three minutes into the flight. The faulty separation "impacted the Stage 2 Lightning engine nozzle, putting the vehicle in a lower than planned orbit," Firefly wrote in an update on social media site X.
In an afternoon update, Firefly said the loss of the nozzle reduced the engine's thrust, preventing the the upper stage from reaching orbit and causing it to crash into the Pacific Ocean north of Antarctica with the Lockheed satellite.
Firefly made a name for itself earlier this year when its Blue Ghost lunar lander became the second-ever commercial spacecraft to make it to the surface of the moon.
After launching Jan. 15, 2025, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the spacecraft managed to touch down about six weeks later on March 3 on the moon's Earth-facing side on a mission to deploy 10 NASA science instruments. The ensuing 14 days of surface operations were meant to help the U.S. space agency pave the way for humans to return in the years ahead under its Artemis program.
This article has been updated to add new information.
Contributing: Reuters
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Vandenberg launch: Firefly to investigate 'mishap' during rocket test
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