Firefly Alpha rocket explodes during first orbital flight attempt
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Firefly Aerospace's 95-foot-tall (29 meters) Alpha rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a Sept. 2, 2021 and suffered an anomaly about 2.5 minutes into flight. Full Story: www.space.com/...
It was carrying a payload called DREAM ("Dedicated Research and Education Accelerator Mission").
Credit: Firefly Aerospace / Everyday Astronaut
Ask Elon Musk how his first 3 flights turned out. Don’t be discouraged, learn from this and move forward
Can't be discouraged from mistakes...that's how we learn
They will get there. Like Elon said “space is hard” I have faith in these folks
As Elon would say, "rockets are hard"
How dumb to reference him for this. Ask anyone that has ever done something like this through all of history, why just ignore that and mention the CEO of another rocket company?
Imagine the hundreds of years it took to learn to build boats that can travel between continents, all the wrecks and lives lost, every try got us closer and look at where we are now.
You wrote that like you're talking to the people that made this happen, which is like a child telling a world class athlete to not be discouraged after they just stumble during practice. It's so dumb that it's not even funny.
Classic comment section, trying to sound smart and say something good but only managing to be offensive, ignorant and completely oblivious to their own stupidity. Well done!
The same guy that can put useable rockets up that will take a payload.... but has 0-11 attempts at one for humans... ask someone who knows... not some one who " used others progress and took it to the next step" . Or who people claim is a founder of a car company and he is not.... or like Steve Jobs gives away jobs and tech to foreign countries. Probably should ask ones who know and not ones will guess or look it up in a book. Space program has turn into " Cut Rate Auto Parts" of space travel. Why not ask the Soviets. 15 yrs of send NASA astronauts' into space and have not lost one soul, or the fact that they landed on Mars first, first to put a man in space, landed 26 times on Venus with probes starting in the 60's. We Americans think we all that...when all we have been doing is playing "catch up" for the last 60 yrs
Rocket gods “no one makes it on the first try!”.
SuperHeavy-StarShip:get ready to hold my beer. (I hope)
@@mattgaming8717 that counts per company not per ship
@@mattgaming8717 wots beer, hold my Martini, not shaken ! olive. lol.
Not true. Vega rocket from Arianespace did it on the first flight
Saturn I, IB, Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Atlas II, III, and V, Delta 4, Falcon 9, Vega, Antares among others made it on their first tries.
Space is hard . Even the greatest aerospace companies failed on first attempt. Better luck next time
Heck, even the USA failed on the first attempt.
Why are rockets by new companies still failing? Does the military not share technology with US startups? You'd think, although rocketry is difficult, they'd have the science mastered by now.
@@the.shotgun.approach Rocket hulls are made paper thin, as they need every bit of thrust/weight ratio in order to reach orbit. Geometry, size and material play into the vibrations/resonance therefore unique to each rocket model. Rockets also fly through various atmospheric regimes putting it through various temperatures and stresses which is difficult to predict or simulate.
@@ccengineer5902 thank you for your reply.
@@MatthewLiebrich many more than just the first attempt, and this from someone who loved the USA, following the moonlandings from another country.
(... and when the moment came for me to choose greatness, I came to the USA)
Just remember.... It took the Wright brothers hundreds of manned glider flights even before considering powered flight. They wind tunnel tested about 200 wing configurations, spent hundreds of hours out in Kitty Hawk before that moment on Dec 17th, 1903. True success doesn't come overnight.
Interesting you should bring that up, because their iterative design approach and their reliance on first principles is a lot like SpaceX's approach.
And they were competing aginst folks very well financed, some by the government. There is so much people don't know about the Wright brothers.
I sense a parallel between the Wright brothers and Musk and Besos and Firefly. They are like the ancient movies featuring people inspired by the Wrights and their ridiculous ideas for flying machines like spinning umbrellas and rocket powered armchairs. They believed in their visions and risked their fortunes and their necks, but only a few got it right. Then and now the motivation is money. Free Enterprise capitalism has reached orbit.
The first rocket into space was launched almost 64 years ago. People do this stuff for a living. The Wright brothers had no one to learn from but themselves. You might as well have made a comment about avocados because it would have made as much sense as your Wright brothers comment.
You mean the ones before them they just enjoyed the spoils
There is no progress without failure.
Unless you fail to progress.
You sound like a mission failure quote from COD.
They lasted pretty long for their first time. Unfortunately, the rocket then busted :/
U don't say...
Why are rockets by new companies still failing? Does the military not share technology with US startups? You'd think, although rocketry is difficult, they'd have the science mastered by now.
Remember ur 1st busted 2 soon lol tell get better with time
@@the.shotgun.approach Some are switching to liquid Methane fuel (as opposed to Hypergaulic solid fuel that is used by the military's ICBMs), while others don't want to rely on old soviet era closed-cycle engine designs. There are also some that are switching to 3d printed parts, all of which will introduce a new set of problems.
It's not so much that they haven't "mastered" the science, but the fact that they're diving into cost-saving, cutting edge tech and facing newer problems.
@@the.shotgun.approach Why the hell would the US military share rocket technology with private companies?
at least they tried for orbital flight unlike a certain someone whose hobby is filing law suits
Some people choose litigation, some people choose greatness and innovation ... I like the latter!
@@GlimmerOfLight some people choose to look like Dr Evil and own a giant flying penis
Bozo who?
Are we talking about the little bald guy with the weird eye that never looks straight?
Firefly, you did way better than what was expected of you on your first flight. don't give up. keep launching them rockets!
👍
Take heart guys, the achievement is still there. Lots of data. Best wishes from downunder in Western Australia.
Same here from South Australia.
@@imho2278 Go Port????
The first three Falcon-1s blew up, so I'm willing to cut them some slack. Rockets are hard. But I really wish they had at least as many successful launches as they do bankruptcies.
Firefly? Which company bankruptcies?
What bankruptcies?
Why are rockets by new companies still failing? Does the military not share technology with US startups? You'd think, although rocketry is difficult, they'd have the science mastered by now.
It hurts so much to see all these "hurr, spacex also had boom". You shouldn't need that as a reference to understand that this is all steps towards success. Doing shit is hard, the only way to succeed is to just do it and learn from everything along the journey.
Man it must suck to be someone working there and seeing all these kids and deeply stupid people say shit like you and so many others. It's astounding how oblivious you are to your own idiocy and ignorance.
@@MuscarV2 it must suck almost as bad as working for a company that has more bankruptcies than launches or as bad as being a concern troll and simp for a failing company
I watched this in person, and I think the videos don't really convey how slowly it was accelerating after it left the pad. I was watching through binoculars and had telephone wires in view near the rocket and it seemed to be just *crawling* for a bit. Seemed to be short on thrust from early in the flight.
At least it didn’t ascend as slowly as the astra one lol
It did seem slow when I originally watched it, but the bigger tell on the stream was that they announced supersonic way after the infographic. Although that is only a real tell if tim was given a flight plan and he wasn't just estimating/guessing. Tim never commented on the difference between the infographic and the actual rocket.
@@kaelandin That astra launch was kickass. Most launch sites wouldn't even provide a clear path for a hover like that due to grounding wires for lightning. Luckily they left their gate open which was their only launch pad obstacle. Astra got flight data and hovering data, pretty cool.
@@_PatrickO I was super impressed with the control software. The engineers who wrote that get mad props for correcting a significant thrust imbalance and pitch angle and getting it flamey end down
People don’t give Astra enough credit, they almost made it to orbit one time but were only deterred by a bad fuel mixture ratio
Well they made a fair way. Nearly at bezo’s height lol.
It's Jeff Besos now
@@RealDigitalReaper704 Bozos (pronounced so it rhymes)
@@_PatrickO 🤣🤣🤣
The Gnome King is way short, lol.
@@RealDigitalReaper704 It’s Besues now
The Firefly caught Fire while Flying... ahhh how ironic...
Space is hard.
If anybody could do it Jeff Bezos wouldn't need to sue everybody.
He's suing his mother for giving him birth
well said trotter fan.
These videos of it like "failed to reach orbit" make a bad impression on them. It's their First time with launching a rocket, not even the US or USSR launched successfully on their first attempt. This was impressive.
Both the Saturn V and the Shuttle launched successfully on their first tries.
at least they have enough balls to actually try to go orbital on their first test flight no less. Unlike some rocket company who just keep repeating suborbital hops as if that is cool.
Fortune follows the brave. Astra will reach orbit, while BO as far as I follow the story including BE4/ULA saga I started to doubt 🧐
This was really interesting. Our company worked on the rocket bells. Nearly 5.5 feet and solid copper. Had to pick with a fork lift.
Did I see three motors on the launch!
There were 4 'Reaver 1' engines on the first stage, as well as a Smaller 'Lightning 1' on the second stage
@@campbellwright3743 Thank you!!! I guess it can still be said that no one has reached orbit with Reaver engines! Scott Manley some to that today as I recall!!
I was there, actually what happened is that 10 seconds into the launch, they realized one of the rocket engines wasn't thrusting as much as the others, so as soon as it went high enough, they had to terminate the rocket. But in other words, it was an amazing sight.
thx for the info. makes sense and, if you're gonna fail, seems like a good/useful fail
Tim did mention that the craft was slow to get to supersonic speed. That must have been it. There was a mention of abort 30 seconds or so before the launch but it was not unclear what the abort mention was all about.
Everything that Firefly has been through, I am so happy for you guys. Although it wasn’t exactly the outcome, desired, what an awesome accomplishment. Thanks for letting Tim do this!
Elon Musk once said, "If you're not failing, you are not Innovating." This failures will be a success in the future. Great job Firely Aerospace Team. 👍👍
Exactly
He's right you know. If you're not failing every once in a while, how would you know whether you're pushing hard enough?
Unlike Sue Origin, they tried their best.
Sue origin was also tried their best. Tried their best to sued SpaceX
Sue Origin lmao sorry first time I’ve seen that 😂😂😂
@@SuikageKagetsu LMFAOO
…. hey, I remember Vanguard rockets blowing up … Atlases … Thor’s ,,, Titan’s … Centaurs … I thought we’d never get to space … “we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things - not because they are easy, but because they are hard !” … 👍🇺🇸
So bad when sometimes years of preparation go wasted in a explosion
not wasted. nobody makes it on the first try... you figure out the issues, modify, and try again.
@@ZicajosProductions Yep. Failures are always disappointing, but anyone expecting to reach orbit on the first attempt is in the wrong business.
Failure is an option here..if you are not failing you will not learn something and inovating
it is not a waste. it was a TEST flight. the whole point was to figure out as much as possible what is wrong with the craft. Like Tim said "Simulation can only take you so far." The test was a success in so far as gathering data. That is why you never put real payload in there.
This was pretty good for their 1st attempt at the altitude it went up to before it exploded. Space is hard.
And I'm still waiting to see if BO would ever make orbit.
Supersonic at their first attempt. That is impressive.
it took almost 2 minutes..
@@pinocleen Yes, two whole minutes of flight. Not 30 seconds.
Tim, All through the video session, the audio from Firefly control was very poor, almost like it was over-driven and breaking up. Your audio was also in and out, especially during the last part of the video. I don't know why because the video was smooth and clean. We could see your lips moving but couldn't hear what you were saying. I do appreciate you providing the video and am very glad that Firefly asked you to live stream their launch activities. Hope they will do this again with you!
Major bummer. This launcher contained several picosats developed in Greece. These guys also made the deployment device for several of the picos
It was tumbling, so they fired the flight termination system. Usually a tumbling rocket rips itself apart ... this one didn't. I believe you can see engine bits spraying right as it went out of control.
The fact they lifted off is super awesome. Don't hate firefly they are trying their best. Every success has feet of failure. I would like to see more from firefly
It was underperforming as it passes max Q, coming to its supersonic milestone late, and continues to accelerate. Then there's a plume of smoke as the craft begins to spiral out of control. It didn't quite make it to MECO, main engine cutoff. Maybe one second later the flight termination system is triggered and the feed is cut. Without knowing more about it, I'm guessing they ran out of propellant early causing the engines to begin running "engine rich," hence the smoke plume at the end. Or it could be something completely different. Overall, it looks like a great success to me as they had a chance to validate everything from liftoff nearly to MECO. 9
Possibly it just couldn't withstand the pressure at Max Q. Engine thrust was definitely less than expected because it got to Mach 1 quite late.
@@greggv8 A mechanical system failure wouldn't explain the delay reaching supersonic velocity. And they had made it to max Q and the pressures were already decreasing at the time of breakup. Scott Manley posted a review saying he thought one of the engines gave out shortly after takeoff. There's a plume in the engine exhaust early on that's pretty obvious once you know where it is.
That was impressive for a first try
T+1m:27s Asymmetric exhaust to the left looking like unburned fuel and the payload camera shows shaking. From then on supersonic speed is only reached later than scheduled.
Best watch out, think there's a new sheriff in town. That was a hell of a first attempt, better than any I've ever seen.
Texas seams to be leading the charge to space right now...and this Texan is damn proud. Good job on their first attempt.
Pretty damn good for their first rocket launch ever. Hey, Firefly, if you read this know that the people gotchu we know space is hard keep at it! you can do it!
I've seen worse first attempts. Hopefully all the data survived and they have the resources to continue.
It looks like the difference between a first time rocket launcher company and a successful, experienced one is institutional knowledge of how it’s done. Getting to the level of knowledge necessary for successful launch requires talent, of course, but more importantly is resilience, boldness and commitment to a purpose. I see SpaceX has those qualities as do ULA and older rocket companies.
looked it live and now i saw the same thing, it wobbled before explosion, feels like it lost a engine and could not rebalance
Hope they got all the data they needed for a successful second attempt
Tbh I would be deeply concerned if my first attempt made it to orbit without a problem. You want these problems sorted before you make it not after. No room for luck.
Well better luck next time, just learn from it a keep going forward. 👍👍👍👍👍❤🇺🇸
Reminds me of the Challenger rocket explosion
I mean the flight went better than they expected! Great job
It exploded.
It was not detonated.
Probably a severe mechanical failure.
Telemetry should show the problem.
It looks like RSO triggered FTS after spinout
That was a mightily impressive debut. Seems like there was a puff of smoke, a time gap and then the bang. Did it reach MECO and ignite Stack 1 before separation?? Just guessing.
@everydatastronaut
(Did you hear the falcon fart on start up?)
Great coverage Tim, thanks!! It's been a while
I love how ole boy said abort and there like nope were sending it
I love the rocket nerds using the term "anomaly" when the entire rocket explodes. Ha.
The anomaly was the lost engine. The explosion was an abort.
You hear about the symptom, not the root cause. Exploding the rocket was the best case after that.
@@thecrazylooser7 The nerds knew something was wrong when it couldn’t reach mach 1 in time.
>rocket nerds
SHAKE IT OFF! You guys did great! Learn from this and get the next one ready. Incredible job on your first attempt!!
I saw this live... another amazing feat for all things space! 😃💯
Still a long way to go. Think about a startup software company, there may be no customer, but you don’t often see websites crash.
Space is Hard. Hope there was enough data recovered to find the problem and try again.
_Looks like _*_PAYLOAD DEPLOYMENT_*_ was a bit early._
So much is learned from failure. Keep going.
I hope they are not discouraged will go at it a second time. Keep on keeping on.
Why do we have to look at some TH-camr rebroadcasting instead of the original video?
Rockets without explosions is like chocolate with out chocolate, it adds flavour to future successes.
Rip first rocket. On the other hand, that was pretty successful for a first orbital attempt.
That was an amazing first attempt! Amazing job!
Interesting they did not notice any anomaly before explosion
Wow what a wonderful height reached on first try... Lisa loves from Kenya
Bravo on your first flight! Keep the MO mov'in!
This will put a huge dent in their budget,
due to all the lost payload
Bad luck now means better luck later.
They still did a great job.
I think that was 3 rockets that had problems in last two weeks
If you notice, success is loud and glorious, and failure is silent. 😕
Well, I can't buy their privately held stocks. So I'll keep rooting for the companies in invested in.
No worries guys, I’m sure Bezos is watching from the ground.
🤭🤣😂
Maybe one day you'll get a souvenir from one of these, and sell it on eBay
Well, that's a test fly, it's actually a good thing when they fail. This will help them learn from mistakes and make further flights safer.
Positive out of a negative well done on your first try I was so impressed well done team can't wait for the next launch 😀
I don't get it. Why are rockets by new companies still failing? Does the military not share technology with US startups? You'd think, although rocketry is difficult, they'd have the science mastered by now.
Not a lot of man made things go right using it the first time.
Ever notice how few bridges look alike? Engineers like to invent things there own (better?) way.
That's just a rapid unscheduled disassembly, that's norminal.
Why make the thumb nail focus on the explosion? Don't be like every other media outlet that gets off on negative headlines and content. Alpha got their first ever try at launching a rocket up to MaxQ. That's huge! You can count the number of rocket companies that got that far on their first try on 2 fingers. The got tons of data and none of the ground equipment was damaged. That's a win in my book. Shame on you for "Firefly Alpha rocket explodes...."
yesterday:
my dad showing me and my mom this live: "this is their first launch ever and they didnt blow up!"
me: jinx it
it: blows up.
control system underperformance. 1 t 1/s 1/s^2. - could try gimbal. better nose cone. separate oxygen tank up. fins. check basic control system S polynomial. check angle rate feedback gain up.
yes, dont be discouraged, remember, even India they have reached moon and mars..
Any added space junk? Or did all pieces return to earth?
Manley has entered the chat..
lol
Everyday Astronaut’s reaction was sorta a comic relief 😅
Who called abort 2 seconds before launch? If someone calls abort... it's abort.
Guess they just ignored it
Except no one called "Abort." If you listen closely, the call out was "Green Board" -- meaning all four engines were signaling they were ready for start up prior to ignition and release of the hold downs...
@@wspaceport That makes more sense...the candle was lit already.
How is it that there are clients that even put their payload onto such first ever flight?
It's not cheap to build it again. SpaceX had that as well.
Why do all the rocket launch folks use the word “nominal”? It doesn’t mean normal or as planned or as expected. I suspect in originated with someone (the military) trying to use something that sounded like technical jargon. The word is universally used incorrectly!
It doesn’t mean what they think it means.
Before you comment look it up yourself!
(of a quantity or dimension, especially of manufactured articles) stated or expressed but not necessarily corresponding exactly to the real value.
@@mario-wb7lw what is the source of that definition??? Just curious.
They did it! It was a successful launch! There still improvement for the next unity but they already nailed a lot of the process. Good job folks!
*_Darn it, I missed the live fireworks show._*
Half of all nation rocket launches is to show other nations the long range capabilities of intercontinental missiles. Ain't shit in outer space. Glad the bomb blew up.
@@thomasdavis4818 Oh yeah, I agree. They are all afraid of SpaceX in various ways. Whether it's the competition or what kinds of weapon he can put up in space for our military forces. As you know SpaceX is launching a Secret satellite project on Sept 7 for one of our military forces. Putting a bunch of them up there in one trip.
Great effort... 👍 All the best for the coming attempts
Why did they have a payload if this was their first ever attempt?
Rocket Lab's second boost to its share price in as many weeks!
Great to see the progress! Keep it up
It's a great progress they made it off ground zero
Why did they have their first orbital attempt with a payload seems kinda risky
Anomaly ? looked more like it blew up which seems normal for new rocket companies
When any rocket blows up it's callled an anomaly
True enough... you don't become a successful rocket company without a few explosions along the way. Just ask SpaceX, just ask RocketLab.
There is a regulation to always have a self destruct system on rockets being launched, it's called an FTS, or Flight Termination System.
This is used to blow the rocket up once it's no longer flying norminally, because it's better to have smaller pieces fall down than one whole rocket.
Did the primary buffer panel just fall off your gorram rocket?
Not bad at all for the first attempt! I look forward to their next attempt. ;-)
They say this happens when you're young. But, they'll get it up again. Probably pretty soon. And the more experience the longer they'll last.
Wouldn't be surprised if certain someones does file a lawsuit to stop them from trying because even in failure they have flight ready equipment, from what I've seen, that certain someone has one half of one flairing. HE'LL SUE to make them stop because their ahead of him and that gives them a unfair advantage.
Looks like they did a lot better than blue origin
Got further than me when I first fly a new rocket in ksp.
For a first flight? They got pretty far. Much further than a certain Sue Origin... Compare it to the track record of SpaceX in the beginning and I'd say they're making good progress.
v_e= \sqrt {\frac {2GM}{r}}
v_e = escape velocity
G = universal gravitational constant
M = mass of the body to be escaped from
r = distance from the center of the mass
2.5 minutes into the flight, that rocket should of been 1,050 miles up. It had no chance at all to make space, no chance at all.
11km or 7 miles per second must be achieved to make space.
That means not a single rocket has ever made it into space ever, ever!
0:29 - On the bottom: "Alpha will accelerate until Max Q..."🤦♀️🤦♂️ as if after Max Q it doesn't accelerate!!! Who writes these stupid comments?
The anomaly is the explosion
How do you describe your project exploding into a million pieces in a great ball of fire? “There has been an anomaly.” Hahahaha Awesome.