Computer glitch caused Firefly Aerospace to send payload to wrong orbit
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Firefly Aerospace’s fourth launch of its Alpha rocket didn’t go as planned.
The mission, Fly the Lightning, took off on December 22 last year, taking a Lockheed Martin electronically steerable antenna (ESA) demo intended for low Earth orbit (LEO).
While Alpha did deliver the payload to LEO, an anomaly caused the machinery to be deployed in the wrong orbit.
Firefly Aerospace immediately conducted a mishap investigation and has just released the results. It turns out that a software issue caused the rocket to deploy the ESA demo at the wrong time. Now that it knows what caused the issue, the company hopes to fly Alpha again in “the coming months.”
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In an update on its website, Firefly wrote that the problem was caused by its Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) software algorithm.
“The investigation determined the mishap was due to an error in the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) software algorithm that prevented the system from sending the necessary pulse commands to the Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters ahead of the stage two engine relight,” the company wrote.
Firefly highlighted that the software issue caused problems for the Fly the Lightning mission but didn’t cause a mission failure.
“Despite these challenges, Alpha deployed the payload in an orbit that allowed our mission partner to successfully complete their primary mission objectives, including rapid commissioning of the satellite following insertion,” Firefly added.
The ESA payload for the FlLockheed Martin designed the Lightning mission to test a faster on-orbit sensor calibration technology that could be used for US warfighters.
“Firefly is now implementing corrections actions to ensure the GNC software issue is resolved, including process changes to detect and prevent similar issues in the future,” the company continued. “Alpha will be ready to fly again in the coming months.”
Firefly’s four missions so far
Fly the Lightning was Firefly’s fourth orbital mission. The company’s two-stage Alpha rocket first flew in September 2021 as part of a test mission that failed to reach orbit. In October 2022, Firefly deployed seven satellites to orbit, though it also experienced an issue that saw the rocket deploy the payload too low.
In September last year, the Alpha rocket flew for the third time. The Victus Nox mission was a big success for Firefly; the company set a national security mission record by launching only 27 hours after the US Space Force made its request.
Firefly announced last August that it was on “hot standby” for the Victus Nox mission, meaning it was aware it could receive the call at any moment. The primary satellite for that mission was deployed to the correct orbit. Shortly afterward, Bill Weber, CEO of Firefly Aerospace,ce said the mission was “an incredible success.”
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