🚀 Alpha | 🛰 LM400 Pathfinder - 'Message In A Booster'
Launch date: April 29, 2025 13:37 UTC
Payload: LM400 Pathfinder - 'Message In A Booster'
Location: SLC-2W, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
Vehicle: Alpha
Firefly Aerospace’s sixth Alpha rocket flight, FLTA006 ‘Message In A Booster’, lifted off April 29, 2025 at 13:37 UTC from SLC-2W, Vandenberg SFB, carrying Lockheed Martin’s LM400 Pathfinder tech demonstration satellite—the Alpha’s largest payload to date. Despite weather and range delays, the vehicle progressed through stage separation, but an anomaly in the Lightning upper stage engine caused a loss of thrust. The incident occurred approximately two-and-a-half minutes into flight, producing a prominent white vapor cloud that suggested a possible explosion or nozzle failure. As a result, the payload failed to reach orbit, impacting the Pacific Ocean near Antarctica. The FAA grounded Alpha pending a mishap investigation, while Firefly and Lockheed Martin continue pursuing rapid launch advancements.
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SLC-2, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA
Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2), located at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, consists of two pads: SLC-2E and SLC-2W. Primarily, SLC-2W has been used for dozens of launches, supporting vehicles such as the Thor and Delta families since its inception in 1958. Over decades of service, it has supported many significant government and commercial satellite launches.
After being decommissioned for Delta II launches in 2018, SLC-2W underwent refurbishment and is currently operated by Firefly Aerospace for its Alpha small launch vehicle. This transition marks SLC-2’s ongoing role in advancing space access, from early Cold War-era launches to supporting new commercial space endeavors.