Firefly launch fails
In its first launch attempt in 2025, Firefly’s Alpha rocket had a problem shortly after the first stage separated from the upper stage and the upper stage’s engines began firing. The upper stage began swivel somewhat though it appeared to stablize after a few seconds.
Subsequent reports confirmed that the stage failed to reach orbit.
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.
In a statement four and a half hours after launch, Firefly confirmed that the upper stage and its payload failed to reach orbit because of the stage separation issue. “The rocket then experienced a mishap between stage separation and second stage ignition that led to the loss of the Lightning engine nozzle extension, substantially reducing the engine’s thrust,” the company stated.
Alpha has now launched a total of six times, but only two of those launches were completely successful. Two of the other launches got their payloads into orbit, but not at the proper positions. In all the failures but one, the problems were with the upper stage. Today’s failure is another example of this.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
In its first launch attempt in 2025, Firefly’s Alpha rocket had a problem shortly after the first stage separated from the upper stage and the upper stage’s engines began firing. The upper stage began swivel somewhat though it appeared to stablize after a few seconds.
Subsequent reports confirmed that the stage failed to reach orbit.
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.
In a statement four and a half hours after launch, Firefly confirmed that the upper stage and its payload failed to reach orbit because of the stage separation issue. “The rocket then experienced a mishap between stage separation and second stage ignition that led to the loss of the Lightning engine nozzle extension, substantially reducing the engine’s thrust,” the company stated.
Alpha has now launched a total of six times, but only two of those launches were completely successful. Two of the other launches got their payloads into orbit, but not at the proper positions. In all the failures but one, the problems were with the upper stage. Today’s failure is another example of this.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I see Firefly pivoting from launch and working more on cis-lunar projects. They know how to get to the moon.
I wish more NewSpacers would look at parallel staging, stage-and-a-half concepts, etc.
Truax lamented how upper stages cost as much if not more than first stages..
A first stage has people about to look things over– all upper, in-line stages fire alone–no help.
I remember reading about mini- and micro-shuttles that looked like scaled down STS stacks.
ALS was to use parallel staging–which means all engines are at ground (pad) level for inspection.
A stage-and-a-half schema means you burn one set of engines pretty much all the way up.
Small, reusable external tanks with a TPS might be recovered even as fairings are.
Jeff Wright,
The era of parallel staging and stage-and-a-half designs was also – Shuttle excepted – an era of total expendability. Institutional inertia has kept a few of these around and even caused new ones to be developed – Atlas V, MHI H-3, Ariane 6, Vulcan, SLS, Long March 5. All are expendable and all are doomed. It’s a lot more expensive to make a dial-a-rocket with side boosters usefully reusable than it is to do the same for a single-stick booster.
I don’t know when Truax made his lament, but he died just after SpaceX first demonstrated that his thesis was not a law of nature – however true it might have been during his heyday.
In any event, all of the parallel staging and stage-and-a-half rockets now extant have upper stages. Without one, the core sustainer stage has to go all the way to orbit and then what. The early Long March 5B is what. Even the PRC has quit launching those.
Could the loss of the 2nd stage engine bell be due to a collision between the stages? If I recall correctly, that sort of failure happened on a Falcon I, and it was corrected by changing the timing of separation until all residual thrust in the first stage was gone.
Rockets are hard. But rocket upper stages are *really* hard.
Insurance rates for Alpha are only going to go even higher, I fear.
MichiCanuck,
You asked: “Could the loss of the 2nd stage engine bell be due to a collision between the stages?”
Scott Manley has a video in which he does some speculation based upon some video, both this flight and historical Firefly launches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kimTg_G-Z4 (19 minutes)
Your concern is valid. The Saturn V had an unusual routine for separating the first stage from the second stage. The interstage section remained with the second stage for a few seconds as the first stage fell away. They kept the interstage attached because of the tight fit between the interstage and the second stage engines. Because the first stage could move quite a bit during separation, there was no guarantee that the interstage section would not contact and damage one or more of the second stage engines. So, they carried the interstage until the second stage had settled down and was not itself pitching or yawing, then they separated the interstage while all was stable.
You may be correct or not. One of Manley’s speculations may be correct or not. We will have to see how the investigation goes.
That’s why I suggested parallel staging, the stage peels off to the side same as strap-ons on Falcon Heavy. No ring of any kind required.
Another reason to like parallel staging–attachment points are farther from the engines.