The explosion of a Firefly Alpha rocket during a test flight was arranged by the US military for security reasons

Today, the first test launch of an ultra-light oxygen-kerosene missile Alpha of the American-Ukrainian company Firefly Aerospace took place from the site of the Vandenberg air base in California.

The tests were unsuccessful and in the third minute of the flight, an explosion occurred, destroying the rocket in the air. Now it became known that the flight was interrupted by the decision of the American military, who were observing the progress of the tests.

” Space Launch Delta 30 completed the flight of the Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket over the Pacific Ocean at 19:01 Pacific Time [05:01 Moscow time] after a successful launch at 18:59 [04:59 Moscow time] from Space Launch Complex 2 of the Vandenberg Base on September 2 “, – reads the message, which was published on the website of the US Space Forces. The message also says that as a result of the rocket explosion, no one was hurt and specialists will soon gather to find out the causes of the incident.

Recall that the 29-meter Alpha rocket successfully took off and began to climb. In the third minute of the flight, a “suspicious anomaly” appeared, which caused the explosion of the carrier, for which this flight was the first in history. Essentially, the US military destroyed the missile for security purposes. Probably, more detailed information about the causes of the incident will be published after experts study the circumstances of the explosion.

A Twitter user posted a picture of the Alpha shrapnel fell all over the California city of Orcatt.

Firefly is owned by Ukrainian businessman Maxim Polyakov. The enterprise intends to enter the market for the delivery of small spacecraft into space with the Alpha rocket, which is capable of launching up to 1000 kg of payload into low-earth orbit and up to 630 kg of cargo into sun-synchronous orbit. One launch of such a rocket along with the cargo is estimated at $ 15 million. In addition, the company’s engineers are developing a spacecraft and a robotic lunar module, which is planned to be delivered to the surface of the Earth’s satellite in 2023.