A software error at Firefly Aerospace caused Lockheed Martin's Electronically Steerable Antenna (ESA) demonstrator to have a shorter-than-expected orbital life following the Alpha launch failure. From the report: According to Firefly's mission update, the error was in the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) software algorithm, which prevented the system from sending the necessary pulse commands to the Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters before reigniting the second stage. . As a result, Lockheed's payload was left in the wrong orbit, causing a headache for Firefly engineers.
The Dec. 22, 2023, launch, dubbed “Fly the Lightning,” initially appeared to be a success. This is Alpha's fourth, and early signs looked good after Firefly finally successfully launched a few months ago in September. However, the burn-up of the second stage to create a circular orbit did not go as planned, leaving Lockheed's satellite stranded in the wrong orbit, with only a few weeks left until it re-entered the atmosphere.
In the end, the Lockheed team achieved a major mission objective. After all, the payload was designed to demonstrate faster calibration of on-orbit sensors. Maybe not so fast. Software problems inside spacecraft are becoming depressingly common. A recent example is Boeing's near-disastrous first launch of his CST-100 Starliner. There, a fuzzy code could lead to a “loss of spacecraft,” in his NASA parlance. In a recent interview with the Register, former Voyager scientist Garry Hunt questioned whether today's commercial spaceflight sector would take the same approach to quality as Coffin of the past.