WASHINGTON — 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.
The first stage was on a test stand at the company’s Briggs, Texas, facility on Sept. 29 when it exploded. The stage was destroyed, but there was no damage outside the test stand and no injuries.
In a Nov. 12 statement coinciding with the release of Firefly’s third-quarter financial results, the company said one of the four engines suffered a “combustion event” during the test. The issue was linked to “minute hydrocarbon contamination” caused by a process error during assembly of the stage, rather than a design flaw in the vehicle.
Firefly said it has made process improvements in the wake of the incident. “As 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,” said Jason Kim, Firefly’s chief executive, on an earnings call.
The company also conducted a daylong “quality stand-down,” he said, during which personnel implemented process improvements. “We’re going to continue to enhance our reliability and quality culture,” he added.
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.
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.
Flight 7 is a return-to-flight mission for Alpha after the Flight 6 launch in April failed to reach orbit. An investigation linked that failure to structural issues with the first stage caused by aeroheating, which damaged the nozzle of the second stage’s engine after stage separation and prevented the upper stage from reaching orbit.
“I have full confidence in our vehicle’s design as well as our passionate and dedicated Alpha team to return to flight safely,” Kim said.
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.
“We are still assessing 2026,” he said. “Our plans are that we get a good flight up, get the post-flight data and continue production.”
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.
Kim said there is no change in the schedule for Eclipse. The company previously said the first flight of the vehicle could take place “as soon as 2026” but has not been more specific. “Alpha should not affect our Eclipse production,” he said.
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.
