Firefly Aerospace scrubs Alpha rocket's return to flight due to high winds

a black and white rocket is seen rolling horizontally down a road toward a launch pad, with grass in the foreground — Firefly Aerospace rolls its Alpha rocket to the pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for the "Stairway to Seven" launch, which is planned for March 1, 2026. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace via X)

Update for 10:15 p.m. ET on March 1: Firefly Aerospace scrubbed the planned March 1 launch of its "Stairway to Seven" launch due to high winds. A new target date has not yet been announced.

Alpha is scheduled to launch from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base today during a two-hour window that opens at 7:50 p.m. EST (4:50 p.m. local California time; 0050 GMT on March 2), on a mission Firefly calls "Stairway to Seven."

Firefly will stream the launch live with its partner NASASpaceflight. Space.com will carry the feed as well, if the Texas-based company makes it available.

As its name suggests, "Stairway to Seven" will be the seventh liftoff to date for the two-stage, 96.7-foot-tall (29.6-meter-tall) Alpha.

The sixth, called "Message in a Booster," launched on April 29 of last year, carrying a prototype satellite for aerospace giant Lockheed Martin. Things didn't go according to plan, however. Alpha's first-stage booster broke apart just after stage separation, generating a pressure wave that affected the upper stage's thrust. As a result, the upper stage ran out of propellant shortly before reaching its target deployment orbit, and the payload was lost.

On Aug. 26, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration cleared Alpha to return to flight. But a month later, the booster slated to fly on "Stairway to Seven" exploded during a test at Firefly's facility in Briggs, Texas, causing further delays.

A black triangular mission path with a rocket with wings launching up some stairs. — The "Stairway to Seven" mission patch. (Image credit: Firefly Aerospace)

"Stairway to Seven" won't carry any operational payloads. Rather, it will serve "as a test flight, with the primary goal to achieve nominal first and second stage performance," Firefly wrote in a mission description.

It will also be the final flight of Alpha's Block I configuration.

"Flight 7 will test and validate key systems ahead of Firefly’s Block II configuration upgrade on Flight 8 that's designed to enhance reliability and manufacturability across the vehicle," Firefly wrote in the mission description. "The Block II configuration includes a 7-foot increase to Alpha’s length, consolidated batteries and avionics built in house, an enhanced thermal protection system and stronger carbon composite structures built with automated machinery."

"Stairway to Seven" will launch just a day before a big anniversary for Firefly: On March 2, 2025, the company's robotic Blue Ghost lunar lander touched down on the moon. Blue Ghost operated nominally for two weeks thereafter as planned, becoming the first private spacecraft ever to complete a lunar surface mission.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.