WASHINGTON \u2014 Firefly Aerospace says contamination in a fluid line caused the loss of an Alpha first stage being tested for an upcoming launch, pushing back that mission to no earlier than the end of this year.<\/p>\n
The first stage was on a test stand at the company\u2019s Briggs, Texas, facility on Sept. 29 when it exploded<\/a>. The stage was destroyed, but there was no damage outside the test stand and no injuries.<\/p>\n In a Nov. 12 statement coinciding with the release of Firefly\u2019s third-quarter financial results, the company said one of the four engines suffered a \u201ccombustion event\u201d during the test. The issue was linked to \u201cminute hydrocarbon contamination\u201d caused by a process error during assembly of the stage, rather than a design flaw in the vehicle.<\/p>\n Firefly said it has made process improvements in the wake of the incident. \u201cAs this was not a design issue, those corrections included increasing inspection requirements for the fluid systems, optimizing the first-stage sensors and incorporating additional automated aborts for testing,\u201d said Jason Kim, Firefly\u2019s chief executive, on an earnings call.<\/p>\n The company also conducted a daylong \u201cquality stand-down,\u201d he said, during which personnel implemented process improvements. \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to enhance our reliability and quality culture,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The stage was being tested for Flight 7 of the Alpha rocket, which will carry a technology demonstration payload for Lockheed Martin. The second stage and payload fairing for that mission are already at the launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Kim said.<\/p>\n Flight 7 will instead use the next Alpha booster on the production line. Firefly is projecting a launch either late in the fourth quarter of this year or early in the first quarter of next year.<\/p>\n Flight 7 is a return-to-flight mission for Alpha after the Flight 6 launch in April failed to reach orbit<\/a>. An investigation linked that failure to structural issues with the first stage caused by aeroheating<\/a>, which damaged the nozzle of the second stage\u2019s engine after stage separation and prevented the upper stage from reaching orbit.<\/p>\n \u201cI have full confidence in our vehicle\u2019s design as well as our passionate and dedicated Alpha team to return to flight safely,\u201d Kim said.<\/p>\n Before the Flight 7 booster was destroyed on the test stand, the company had planned to launch both Flight 7 and Flight 8 before the end of the year. On the earnings call, Kim declined to provide guidance on future Alpha launches beyond Flight 7, including how many launches the company expects in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still assessing 2026,\u201d he said. \u201cOur plans are that we get a good flight up, get the post-flight data and continue production.\u201d<\/p>\n The issues with Alpha are having only a limited impact on work for the larger Eclipse vehicle that Firefly is developing with Northrop Grumman. Production of all Miranda engines that will power the first stage of the initial flight vehicle is underway, Kim said, while hot-fire tests of the first Vira engine, used on the upper stage, are planned for the first half of next year.<\/p>\n Kim said there is no change in the schedule for Eclipse. The company previously said the first flight of the vehicle could take place \u201cas soon as 2026\u201d but has not been more specific. \u201cAlpha should not affect our Eclipse production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Firefly reported $30.8 million in revenue in the third quarter, up from $22.4 million in the same quarter of 2024. The company had an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) loss of $46.3 million in the quarter, compared to a $28 million loss a year ago.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Firefly Aerospace says contamination in a fluid line caused the loss of an Alpha first stage…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":375051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[65930,180494,44163,159,16988,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-375050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-alpha","9":"tag-eclipse-launch-vehicle","10":"tag-firefly-aerospace","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sn","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115540297228840368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}