Firefly Aerospace's Second Orbital Launch Attempt Aborted Just After Ignition

Firefly Aerospace scrubbed launching its Alpha rocket on Friday, September 30, just after engine ignition. Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that it was their second attempt at launching their rocket to low Earth orbit after a failed attempt last year.

The company's Alpha rocket was supposed to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and follow a planned arc over the Pacific Ocean. The mission was aborted after a hold was called at T-0; the company is investigating what happened as they wait for the next launch window.

Expedition 68 Launch — In this handout provided by NASA, the Soyuz MS-22 rocket is launched to the International Space Station with Expedition 68 astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin of Roscosmos onboard, on September 21, 2022, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Rubio, Prokopyev, and Petelin will spend approximately six months on the orbital complex, returning to Earth in March 2023. NASA via Getty Images

Abort Mission: Alpha Rocket's Second Launch Attempt

The Alpha rocket launch was scheduled on a test flight early Friday morning, and it ticked off many boxes that say it was ready for the launch, including engine ignition. At 3:51 a.m. EDT, the first-stage Reaver engines lit up but shut down almost immediately, according to Space.com.

The 95-foot-tall rocket remained standing on the pad in good condition, so it was not immediately clear to the team what caused the automatic abort feature.

Firefly tweeted that the rocket went into auto abort after ignition, a design that ensures system safety. The team has to scrub off the attempt and is currently reviewing data to determine the next launch window.

The mission was "Alpha Flight 2: To The Black." As its name suggests, this is the second orbital attempt for the rocket after it failed last year. The rocket is not carrying a dummy payload and will attempt to deploy some satellites into low Earth orbit during the mission.

It was originally set on September 11, but it was also postponed after some unexpected drop in helium pressure in the leadup to liftoff, as well as unfavorable weather that pushed the launch to September 30. The company aims to secure a sizeable portion of the small satellite market with Alpha.

Firefly Aerospace's First Alpha Rocket Launch Attempt Explodes in Flight

Firefly Aerospace first attempted to launch the Alpha rocket on September 3, 2021, per NASA Spaceflight's report. But 14 seconds into its launch, an engine failure happened. Despite this, the rocket maintained control for almost two and a half minutes before tumbling, leading ground operators to activate the flight termination system.

They recovered the engine assembly downrange that helped them investigate the cause for the early shutdown. They figured it was due to the pins failing in the power line to the main engine valves that caused them to close and shut the engine down. The failure mode was backed up with data from the rocket that reported a decreased electric current on the power rail and closure of the valve.

Firefly Aerospace founder Tom Markusic said that the engines on flight 1 were tougher than newer engines and produced more vibrations during the flight, causing its failure mode. They moved the electrical conductor up on the vehicle where there were lesser vibrations to ensure the failure mode did not happen again.