WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - Firefly Aerospace said

the sixth mission of its Alpha rocket suffered a mishap in space

after launching from California on Tuesday, putting a satellite

owned by Lockheed Martin ( LMT ) in a "lower than planned

orbit," suggesting a potential mission failure.

Firefly said the mishap occurred during separation of

Alpha's core stage booster with its second stage roughly two and

a half minutes after liftoff, which "impacted the Stage 2

Lightning engine nozzle, putting the vehicle in a lower than

planned orbit."

The company said it was working with Lockheed to determine

the root cause of the failure. Lockheed did not immediately

respond to a question on whether it believes its satellite could

raise its orbit or otherwise survive the mishap.

The mission was the first in a multi-mission agreement

between Firefly and Lockheed, which had on board the rocket a

self-funded satellite called LM 400 Technology Demonstrator,

meant to advance space technologies and lower risk for Lockheed

customers.