Firefly Aerospace and Lockheed Martin joint launch suffers mishap and safely crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Antartica Tuesday

VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. – During the Mission in a Booster launch Tuesday, there was mishap during the first-stage separation and the rocket and payload aboard safely crashed into the Pacific Ocean north of Antartica.

According to Firefly Aerospace, the Alpha rocket on the mission took off and reached the target separation velocity when a mishap during the separation process led to the loss of the Stage 2 Lightning engine nozzle extension.

Without the nozzle extension, the engine's thrust was reduced enough to thwart the arrival of the upper stage into orbital velocity detailed Firefly Aerospace in a press release Tuesday.

The rocket and payload safely crashed into a cleared zone in the Pacific Ocean north of Antartica shared Firefly Aerospace.

"During [the Mission in Booster] launch Tuesday, the Firefly rocket experienced an anomaly and our LM 400 technology demonstration satellite was lost," said a spokesperson on behalf of Lockheed Martin. "We are coordinating with the Firefly team to determine the root cause.  Navigating risk and going fast are part of these self-funded demonstrations, and the knowledge we've gained already from the LM 400 production and processing will also benefit future customer missions."

Now, Firefly is working alongside its partner on the mission, Lockheed Martin, the Space Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration in an investigation of the mishap added Firefly Aerospace.

"The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the Firefly Aerospace Alpha Flight 6 mission that launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on April 29, 2025," stated a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson in response to Your News Channel's inquiries. "No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring Firefly to conduct a mishap investigation."