Firefly Aerospace insists launch mission is a success despite payloads falling prematurely

Texas-based launch-providing company Firefly Aerospace is calling its first-ever launch a success even after the satellites deployed fell back to Earth much earlier than expected. The launch was conducted on October 1 using the Alpha rocket wherein the company lofted three satellites as payload. The satellites, however, failed to reach the planned orbit and the atmospheric drag forced them to make a premature re-entry. 

Firefly calls mission a success, data says otherwise

Citing reports made using the U.S. Space Force’s tracking data, Space News revealed that the satellites were placed in orbits with a perigee of about 220 kilometers and apogee of 275 kilometers instead of the target orbit of 300 km. 

The payload was comprised of TechEdSat-15 (TES-15), developed in collaboration between NASA and San Jose State University, ‘Serenity’ by the nonprofit Teachers in Space and PicoBus. The third satellite had five smaller payloads of its own. The US Space Force catalogued some of the payloads and identified them as Serenity and TechEdSat-15 along with the upper stage of the Alpha rocket. Observations revealed that these satellites re-entered the Earth on October 5 and 7. 

While the TES-15 sat's deorbiting has been confirmed by NASA spokesperson Rachel Hoover, she said that the satellite meant to test the exo-brake technology for precise satellite reentries was expected to last less than ten days. 

Moreover, the satellite database compiled by space traffic management company Slingshot Aerospace’s Seradata says that other satellites might have also fallen around the same time. "Seradata is now classing this as a "launch failure" with a provisional capability loss of 90 percent due to the likely life loss for the seven satellites aboard when compared to their design lives", the company tweeted on October 6 highlighting the "underperformance" of the Alpha rocket's upper stage. 

On the contrary, Firefly tweeted on October 7 that it is "pleased with the data" mission controllers have received. "Our primary objective for Alpha FLTA002 was to achieve a pre-defined elliptical orbit following the second stage burn. This was 100% successful", the company said adding that "preliminary reviews show we will only require minor tweaks for our next mission".