All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Astra’s Rocket 3.2 vehicle is similar to the Rocket 3.1 vehicle that failed to reach orbit during a 2020-09-11 launch from Kodiak.
Astra competed in the DARPA Launch Challenge in March with Rocket 3.0 and scrubbed a launch attempt less than a minute before liftoff, forgoing eligibility for a $2,000,000 prize had Rocket 3.0 reached orbit.
Astra regards the Rocket 3.1 launch as having provided valuable flight data and as putting the company on track to reach orbit within two additional flights.
Astra’s 12-day launch period for Rocket 3.2 opens 2020-12-07 with a daily launch window from 2:00 to 5:30 p.m. Eastern.
Astra completed testing of the vehicle Rocket 3.2 and will ship it from its California headquarters to the Pacific Spaceport Complex–Alaska on Kodiak Island.
Astra refrained from flying a payload on Rocket 3.1 to avoid putting a payload at unnecessary risk, a position attributed to Adam London, co-founder and chief technology officer.
Astra identified in a 2020-09-12 blog post that Rocket 3.1’s guidance system appeared to have introduced slight oscillation that caused the vehicle to drift from its planned trajectory, leading to a commanded shutdown of the engines by the flight safety system.
ASTRA’s orbital positions at 23.5 degrees East and 19.2 degrees East will be used to distribute content for M7, CANAL+’s Luxembourg-based subsidiary operating pay-TV platforms across the Benelux and Central Europe.
Astra launched its Rocket 3.1 vehicle from the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska on Kodiak Island on 2020-09-11.
Astra launched its Rocket 3.1 vehicle late on 2020-09-11.
Astra’s 2020-09-12 blog post attributes the flight termination to slight oscillation introduced by the guidance system that caused the vehicle to drift from its planned trajectory and triggered a commanded shutdown of the engines by the flight safety system.
Astra’s goal for the 2020-09-11 launch was to complete the first-stage burn and separate the upper stage approximately two and a half minutes after liftoff.
Astra did not expect Rocket 3.1 to reach orbit and the vehicle was not carrying a payload on the 2020-09-11 flight.
Adam London, Astra’s co-founder and chief technology officer, estimated that the next vehicle would require at minimum a few months of testing and modifications to address issues from the Rocket 3.1 launch before it could be ready to launch.
Astra’s launch window for the 2020-08-30 Rocket 3.1 attempt opens at 10 p.m. Eastern and lasts two and a half hours.
The 2020-08-30 launch is the first of three launches Astra plans to perform to demonstrate that the Rocket 3.1 vehicle can achieve orbit.
Astra attempted to launch from Kodiak during a six-day period that began 2020-08-02, with weather postponing launch attempts on three days and technical and range issues scrubbing launches on the other three days.
Astra’s Rocket 3.0 attempted to launch from Kodiak in March as part of the DARPA Launch Challenge and was scrubbed less than a minute before liftoff because of an anomalous signal in vehicle telemetry.
Astra will attempt to launch its Rocket 3.1 vehicle from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island on 2020-08-30.
ASTRA is seeking more than $1,000,000 in damages in its lawsuit against Astra Space.