Hoping to chalk up the company’s second successful flight, California-based Astra fired off a 43-foot-tall rocket from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday, but the vehicle’s upper stage appeared to tumble out of control moments after engine ignition. The rocket’s payload — four small NASA- and university-provided research satellites booked under a $3.9 million contract through the space agency’s Venture Class Launch Services program — was lost in the mishap.
“Unfortunately, we heard that an issue has been experienced during flight that prevented the delivery of our customer payloads to orbit today,” Astra Director of Product Management Carolina Grossman said at the end of a livestream of the launch. “We are deeply sorry to our customers, NASA, the University of Alabama, the University of New Mexico and the University of California, Berkeley. More information will be provided as we complete a data review.”
In a statement, NASA said an “in-flight anomaly” prevented the satellites, known as CubeSats, from being delivered.
“The Astra team demonstrated dedication to supporting NASA’s mission,” Hamilton Fernandez, mission manager with NASA’s Launch Services Program, said in the statement. “The lessons learned will benefit them and the agency going forward.”
Intended to carry payloads weighing up to 110 pounds, the Astra rocket is one of the smallest orbit-class boosters in operation, designed to be trucked to multiple launch sites for fast-response flights by a small crew of on-site engineers and technicians.
The goal is to provide low-cost access to orbit for small civilian, commercial and military satellites that otherwise might have to hitch rides aboard larger rockets as secondary payloads. Astra’s rocket is intended to provide more flexibility, along with lower costs, in the emerging small satellite marketplace.
Astra completed its first successful flight to orbit last November with a rocket launched from Alaska. Three earlier attempts were not successful.
After multiple launch scrubs due to weather and other issues, Astra tried again Thursday.
The two-stage Rocket 3.3, about five times shorter than a SpaceX Falcon 9, roared to life at 3 p.m. EST and climbed away from launch complex 46 atop 32,500 pounds of thrust.
The five Delphin first-stage engines fired for two minutes and 50 seconds as planned, boosting the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere on a northeasterly trajectory toward a 310-mile-high orbit tilted 41 degrees to the equator.
The engines appeared to shut down on time, and the first stage fell away, leaving the rest of the ascent to the rocket’s upper stage and its single Aether engine.
The engine ignited, but almost immediately, a camera mounted on the side of the stage showed what appeared to be an out-of-control tumble with the Earth below rapidly rotating into and out of view.
Miles Doran contributed reporting.
