American private aerospace firm Firefly Aerospace has successfully launched its Alpha Flight 5 (FLTA005) rocket, which carried eight CubeSat for NASA.

The mission, part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative(CSLI), lifted off aboard the Alpha rocket, named “Noise of Summer” from Space Launch Complex 2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9.04 p.m. PDT (9.34 a.m. IST).

Following payload deployment, Firefly successfully performed a second stage relight and plane change manoeuvre to further test and validate Alpha’s on-orbit capabilities, the company said. Firefly Aerospace is a NASA vendor for both launch and lunar services.