Firefly Alpha | FLTA006 (Message in a Booster)
Failure ReasonLaunch Failure
Problem during stage separation and second stage ignition caused disintegration of the separated 1st stage and the loss of the Lightning engine nozzle extension on the 2nd stage, substantially reducing the engine’s thrust. 2nd stage reached 320 km in altitude but did not reach orbital velocity, eventually impacted the Pacific Ocean north of Antarctica.
Mission Details
Sixth flight of the Firefly Alpha small satellite launcher, launching the demonstration mission for Lockheed Martin's new LM400 satellite bus, which will carry a communications payload. The satellite bus is customizable to support different missions, including remote sensing, communications, imagery and radar Earth observations. It can also support different kinds of orbits and launch configurations.
- Type
- Technology
- Orbit
- Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
Launch Site
- Pad
- Space Launch Complex 2W
- Location
- Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
- Country
- 🇺🇸 USA
Weather at Launch
- Temp
- 10.7°C
- Wind
- 14 km/h @ 333°
- Sky
- Mainly clear
- Source
- open-meteo-archive