Firefly's Alpha rocket lifted off on October 1st at 12:01 AM Pacific time from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, successfully reaching orbit and delivering its customer's payloads. Supercluster's west coast photographer Tom Cross was on-site to cover the "To The Black" mission that was delayed a couple of weeks due to scrubs brought on by weather and an auto-abort.

The mission marked the second test of the company's Alpha and now has become the first company in history to reach orbit on its second try. Firefly first attempted to launch the 1300kg payload vehicle class rocket on September 2nd, 2021 but the mission ended in a fiery explosion two and a half minutes into the flight. The failure was blamed on an early engine shutdown.

“With the success of this flight, Firefly has announced to the world there is a new orbital launch vehicle, available today, with a capacity that is pivotal to our commercial and government customers,” said Bill Weber, Firefly CEO. “Proving our flight and deployment capabilities on only our second attempt is a testament to the maturity of our technology and the expertise of our team. This is an exciting day at Firefly, and we have many, many more ahead. I could not be more excited for the Firefly team.”

"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty," - Captain Malcolm Reyolds