We’ll probably have to attend some time to see Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket take to the skies once more.
The primary stage of the rocket that Firefly was prepping to make Alpha’s seventh-ever flight exploded on Monday (Sept. 29) throughout a preflight trial.
“During testing at Firefly’s facility in Briggs, Texas, the first stage of Firefly’s Alpha Flight 7 rocket experienced an event that resulted in a loss of the stage,” the Texas-based company wrote in an update on Monday afternoon. “Correct security protocols have been adopted, and all personnel are protected. The corporate is assessing the affect to its stage check stand, and no different amenities have been impacted.”
It is one other setback for Firefly, which suffered a failure throughout its most up-to-date Alpha launch this previous April.
Throughout that mission, known as “Message in a Booster,” Alpha’s first-stage booster broke aside shortly after separating from the higher stage. The anomaly broken the higher stage’s engine nozzle, compromising its thrust and resulting in the lack of the payload, Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 satellite tv for pc expertise demonstrator.
Firefly traced the issue to warmth buildup within the first stage, brought on by a phenomenon often called “plume-induced stream separation.” Earlier this month, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration accepted the outcomes of the corporate’s anomaly investigation and its mitigation plan, clearing Alpha to launch as soon as once more.
The 2-stage Alpha, which stands 96.7 ft (29.6 meters) tall, debuted in September 2021. Simply two of its six orbital launches thus far have been absolutely profitable.
Alpha’s seventh flight is slated to be one other mission for Lockheed Martin, based on Firefly’s launch page. Firefly had been focusing on a liftoff later this yr; it is too quickly to foretell how that schedule would possibly change.
“Common testing is a part of Firefly’s philosophy — we check every vital part, engine, and automobile stage to make sure it operates inside our flight necessities earlier than we ship to the launch pad,” the corporate wrote in Monday’s replace. “We study from every check to enhance our designs and construct a extra dependable system. We are going to share extra info on the trail ahead at a later date.”
Firefly would not simply construct rockets. Certainly, it is most likely finest identified for its robotic Blue Ghost moon lander, the primary of which aced its lunar mission for NASA in March of this yr.
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