Firefly launches its Alpha rocket, almost a year after previous launch failure
Firefly today successfully launched its Alpha rocket, almost a year after a launch failure in April 2025.
This launch, from Firefly’s launchpad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, was the last for this version of Alpha, and was designed as a test flight, both to check out the fixes to correct last year’s failure as well as to prove out some of the technology that will be used on the upgraded Alpha to be used on all future flights.
The 2026 launch race:
30 SpaceX
8 China
3 Rocket Lab
2 Russia
1 ULA
1 Europe (Arianespace)
1 Firefly
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches — as it did in both ’24 and ’25 — and is doing almost twice as many launches as everyone else.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Firefly today successfully launched its Alpha rocket, almost a year after a launch failure in April 2025.
This launch, from Firefly’s launchpad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, was the last for this version of Alpha, and was designed as a test flight, both to check out the fixes to correct last year’s failure as well as to prove out some of the technology that will be used on the upgraded Alpha to be used on all future flights.
The 2026 launch race:
30 SpaceX
8 China
3 Rocket Lab
2 Russia
1 ULA
1 Europe (Arianespace)
1 Firefly
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches — as it did in both ’24 and ’25 — and is doing almost twice as many launches as everyone else.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
So now it’s on to Alpha Block 2 and then Eclipse. I’ll be wishing Firefly well on both and hope to also see both happen during the remainder of this year.
This is a huge win for #FireflyAerospace. Clearing that hurdle after the 2025 setback is critical, especially since they’re using this flight as a bridge to their upgraded Alpha configuration.
The 2026 leaderboard really highlights the sheer scale of SpaceX’s cadence. With 30 launches already, they aren’t just leading; they are essentially providing the backbone for global orbital access while others scale up their next-gen systems such as ULA with Vulcan or Rocket Lab Electron.
Yow– they totally botched the coverage of take-off!