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.