When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.Credit: Firefly AerospaceTexas-based Firefly Aerospace is celebrating today (March 11) after successfully launching its Alpha rocket for the first time in nearly a year.Today’s mission, called “Stairway to Seven,” was the seventh flight for Alpha, which suffered two major mishaps during 2025. The first occurred during the “Message in a Booster” mission last April, which carried a technology-demonstrating satellite for Lockheed Martin but failed to deliver it to orbit after an anomaly occurred during stage separation.AdvertisementAdvertisementThen, last September, an Alpha first stage exploded on the stand during prelaunch tests for “Stairway to Seven.” This mishap added months to the mission development timeline as the company investigated a cause and got another booster ready for flight.Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket launches on the “Stairway to Seven” mission on March 11, 2026. | Credit: Firefly AerospaceThe test-stand explosion was eventually traced to “a process error during stage one integration that resulted in a minute hydrocarbon contamination,” according to a Firefly update in November, which ruled out a design flaw in the rocket and cleared its path back to the launch pad.Nevertheless, Firefly changed “Stairway to Seven.” The company reframed it as a test flight, focusing on achieving “nominal first and second stage performance,” according to a mission description.”Stairway to Seven” took to this skies this evening (March 11) from Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, with liftoff at 8:50 p.m. ET (0050 GMT on March 12).AdvertisementAdvertisementAt approximately 2 minutes, 40 seconds into flight, Alpha successfully executed first-stage separation, jettisoning its main booster as the rocket’s upper stage continued powering its way to orbit.Following fairing ejection about 30 seconds later, Alpha cut off its upper-stage engine about 8 minutes after liftoff and reached orbit as planned, 151 miles (243 kilometers) above Earth.”Mission success! Alpha Flight 7 achieved nominal performance and validated key systems ahead of our Block II configuration upgrade. This test flight also delivered a demonstrator payload for @LockheedMartin. Congratulations to the entire Stairway to Seven team!” Firefly wrote via X after the flight.Mission success! Alpha Flight 7 achieved nominal performance and validated key systems ahead of our Block II configuration upgrade. This test flight also delivered a demonstrator payload for @LockheedMartin . Congrat …
