All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
ASTRA is based in Colorado and holds several federal trademarks issued in 2019 covering its work developing satellites and related technologies for atmospheric modeling and space weather.
Astra’s Rocket 3.1 vehicle incorporated fixes for the offload/valve problem in three or four different ways and was shipped to Alaska in 2020-07-01 for a launch scheduled no earlier than 2020-08-02.
Winning the DARPA Launch Challenge launch and reaching orbit would have awarded Astra $2,000,000 and qualified the company to make a second launch for $10,000,000 more.
Astra will collect flight data from the 2020-08-02 launch to validate systems that can only be tested in flight.
Astra considers the 2020-08-02 launch attempt to be unlikely to achieve orbit.
The 2020-08-02 launch is the first of three launches Astra plans to carry out to demonstrate Rocket 3.1’s ability to achieve orbit.
Astra is targeting an 2020-08-02 launch during a two-hour window that opens at 10 p.m. Eastern.
VOX Space, Aevum, Astra, X-Bow, Rocket Lab, and Space Vector were notified in June that they would collectively receive $116,000,000 in contracts to launch small satellites for the U.S. government.
Astra was one of six companies selected by the Department of Defense in June 2020 to receive contracts for two launches each under the Defense Production Act.
The Department of Defense withdrew the planned small launch awards to Astra and other companies on 2020-07-01.
Astra targeted a launch the week of 2020-07-20 before delaying to the early August window.
Astra posted a video on 2020-07-16 showing Rocket 3.1 completing a second static-fire test at a California test site and stated the rocket was being shipped to Kodiak, Alaska.
Astra was the final company remaining in the DARPA Launch Challenge and would have won $2,000,000 for a successful launch that day and qualified for an additional $10,000,000 for a second launch later in the month.
A three-and-a-half-hour daily launch window for Astra’s Rocket 3.1 opens each day at 3:30 p.m. Eastern through 2020-08-07.
Astra’s Rocket 3.0 was damaged during pre-launch preparations in late March 2020, and satellite imagery of the pad taken shortly after the incident showed burn scars in the vicinity.
The launch window for Astra’s Rocket 3.1 will open 2020-08-02 from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island.
On 2020-07-01 the Department of Defense withdrew the small launch contracts that would have been awarded to Aevum, Astra, X-Bow, Rocket Lab, Space Vector, and VOX Space to launch two rideshare missions over the next 24 months.
The U.S. Defense Department canceled on 2020-07-01 plans to award launch contracts to six small launch vehicle developers: Aevum, Astra, X-Bow, Rocket Lab, Space Vector, and VOX Space.
The Department of Defense selected Aevum, Astra, X-Bow, Rocket Lab, Space Vector, and VOX Space on 2020-06-16 to receive noncompetitive contracts to launch two rideshare missions for government customers over the next 24 months.
NOAA awarded ASTRA a $599,885 contract in April for a six-month study called GEO-utilization of Common LEO Architecture for Weather (G-CLAW).