CNN
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Texas-based commercial rocket company Firefly launched a rocket into space Friday morning, a year after a previous test ended in an explosion.
The company announced on “100% mission success”. Twitter.
The Alpha rocket lifted off at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
It was originally scheduled for a Sept. 11 launch, but that was canceled due to the rocket’s helium pressure depletion, a KSBY affiliate reported.
“Alpha is an economical small satellite launch vehicle,” Vandenberg reports on his website. “Firefly had three payloads on board and successfully entered an elliptical transition orbit, coasted to apogee, and conducted a circular burn.”
It was the company’s second drone launch from Vandenberg.
In September 2021, the rocket appeared to experience a soft lift-off but later failed. US space force officials ordered the company to destroy the rocket in mid-air to prevent injury to people and property. No one was injured.
Firefly and other commercial rocket companies are trying to make space not the exclusive domain of governments, but the domain of competitive commerce.
