Overview
- Firefly announced Block II for Alpha with stretched, stronger stages, in‑house avionics and batteries, and optimized tanks with improved thermal protection to extend burn time.
- Qualification testing of Block II second‑stage hardware is underway at the company’s Rocket Ranch facility in Briggs, Texas.
- Flight 7, targeted in the coming weeks from Vandenberg Space Force Base, will be the last in the current configuration and will fly several Block II subsystems in shadow mode, including in‑house avionics and thermal upgrades.
- Following a Sept. 29 static‑fire loss of the original Flight 7 first stage, Firefly will use the stage originally built for Flight 8, describing the incident as engine contamination rather than a design flaw.
- Firefly has not disclosed updated performance figures for Block II; Alpha is currently listed at about 1,030 kg to low Earth orbit and 630 kg to sun‑synchronous orbit, after a flight record that includes two full successes, two partials, and two failures including an April 2025 anomaly.