![]() ![]() “While we did not meet all of our mission objects, we did achieve a number of them: successful first stage ignition, liftoff the pad, progression to supersonic speed, and we obtained a substantial amount of flight data,” the company said in a statement posted to Twitter.įirefly is among a long list of commercial rocket companies pushing to make space a place of competitive business rather than the sole domain of governments. Courtesy Tim Dodd/Everyday Astronautįirefly, which is headquartered near Austin, Texas, said it is working with federal regulators to determine what went wrong before it works toward its next orbital flight attempt. Early prototypes of a rocket the company hopes will one day put humans on Mars, for example, have taken several explosive dives back to Earth this year.įirefly's 100-foot-tall Alpha rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Thursday evening shortly before exploding. And then there’s SpaceX, which has endured many explosions during the early development phases of its rocket technology. (ASTR), a California-based startup with a similar business plan to Firefly’s, attempted last week to put its 43-foot-tall rocket into orbit, but the vehicle veered sideways off its launch pad and attempted to right itself before exploding over the coast of Alaska. No one was harmed.įirefly is not the only space company to lose a rocket in 2021. But then, the rocket began to cartwheel, turning over itself, before US Space Force officials on the ground directed the company to destroy the rocket mid-air - called an emergency abort - so that it would not tumble uncontrolled back toward people or property. The rocket, which launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base north of Los Angeles on Thursday, appeared to have a smooth liftoff as it soared out over the Pacific Ocean and approached supersonic speeds. Now, American Airlines is hoping to sell and ship some of its excess wine directly to peoples’ homes. This is adding up to a lot of leftover booze. Airlines are still operating only a fraction of the number of flights they offered pre-pandemic, and alcohol is banned in many cabins to help thwart the spread of Covid-19. ![]()
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