For the first time in nearly a year, Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket has launched from Southern California.
Standing just shy of 100 feet tall, the two-stage rocket blasted off March 11 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. The mission, which came following a series of delays, went off without a hitch, with Alpha managing to avoid encountering any of the issues that left the rocket grounded for months following a failed spaceflight in April 2025.
Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based spaceflight and defense company, also projected that the rocket would be visible in several states along the West Coast…