Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket.
Awaiting liftoff, Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket sits at Vandenberg Space Force Base earlier this week. The company says the mission achieved many of the early flight milestones but failed to place the payload in its intended orbit. However, ground controllers were communicating with the Lockheed Martin payload. (Trevor Mahlmann / Firefly Aerospace photo)

Making its fourth flight Friday morning, the Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket experienced troubles in the final seconds, leaving the satellite in an unintended orbit.

Twelve hours after the launch, the Texas-based firm confirmed that the mission met its early milestones through the first planned second-stage engine cutoff, or SECO.

“Following SECO 1, Alpha’s scheduled stage two engine relight did not deliver the payload to its precise target orbit. However, communication to the spacecraft has been established and mission operations are now underway,” Firefly officials said in a written statement released 12 hours after the launch. 

The Alpha rocket, designed to carry smaller payloads, lifted off from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-2 at 9:32 a.m. Friday.

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s new wideband Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) technology demonstrator rode on the rocket. 

“In line with our core principles as a company, we will rapidly and continuously innovate to find a solution and ensure complete resolution of any anomaly we see during flight,” Firefly’s statement said.

“We will work with our customer and government partners to investigate the stage two performance and determine the root cause.”

Dubbed Fly the Lightning, the mission’s successful early milestones included liftoff from the launch pad, stage one main engine cutoff (MECO), stage separation, stage two ignition, fairing separation and the first second stage engine cutoff, Firefly said. 

The disappointing ending to the launch came three months after Firefly’s third mission occurred successfully from Vandenberg, delivering its payload while also proving the team could trim the time it takes to prep and conduct a space launch mission.

Firefly’s inaugural launch ended dramatically above the Central Coast in September 2021.

Lockheed Martin has not commented since the launch of its payload, so it’s not clear how many of the mission objectives, if any, can be met. 

Dubbed Tantrum and developed within the firm’s Ignite organization, the sensor employed an integrated Terran Orbital small satellite bus, or frame.

Firefly Aerospace graphic of Alpha rocket's flight.
A Firefly Aerospace graphic shows the many milestones of the Alpha rocket’s flight. The firm said Friday’s launch left its payload in an unplanned orbit after the second-stage engine relight did not occur as planned. (Firefly Aerospace graphic)

Using a proprietary design, the ESA payload aimed to demonstrate faster on-orbit sensor calibration to deliver rapid capabilities to U.S. warfighters.

Officials said the calibration was expected to occur within a fraction of the time that sensors normally require to ready for use once they arrive in space.

“Our customers’ mission needs and operational tempo have increased dramatically,” said Maria Demaree, a vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin Space. “We designed this technology to showcase how a highly producible ESA antenna could be built, launched, and quickly calibrated and fielded on orbit, in support of 21st century security.”

— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.