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Stairway To Seven

All articles tagged with #stairway to seven

space-exploration1 month ago•54 min saved

Firefly’s Alpha makes orbit on comeback flight, paving the way for a bigger Block II

Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket achieved orbit on its first launch since two 2025 mishaps, during the Stairway to Seven mission from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base. First-stage separation occurred at about 2 minutes 40 seconds, and the upper stage placed a Lockheed Martin demonstrator payload into orbit, marking a successful validation of systems ahead of Alpha’s Block II upgrade. The 2025 failures were traced to a hydrocarbon contamination caused by a stage-one integration process error, not a design flaw.

via Space|

#alpha-rocket #block-ii-upgrade #firefly-aerospace

launches-and-spacecraft1 month ago•53 min saved

Firefly Alpha returns to flight with 'Stairway to Seven' test from Vandenberg

Firefly Aerospace is bringing its Alpha rocket back to flight from Vandenberg Space Force Base with the Stairway to Seven test mission, a two-stage launch to validate first- and second-stage performance ahead of its Block II upgrade; no operational payload will be flown. The lift-off window opens about 7:50 p.m. ET today (4:50 p.m. local), with NASASpaceflight and Space.com streaming the event; this flight follows Alpha's 2024 mishaps—a booster split and an upper-stage propellant loss—after which the FAA cleared Alpha to resume flights.

via Space|

#alpha-rocket #firefly-aerospace #launches-and-spacecraft