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Offline Orionid

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Artykuły o Astra Space
« dnia: Marzec 03, 2020, 06:51 »
DARPA Launch Challenge ends without winner
by Jeff Foust — March 2, 2020


Astra's Rocket 3.0 on the pad at Pacific Spaceport Complex - Alaska March 2 shortly before its launch was scrubbed, ending the DARPA Launch Challenge. Credit: DARPA webcast

BROOMFIELD, Colo. — A DARPA responsive launch competition that started two years ago came to an end March 2 without a winner as the sole remaining team was forced to scrub their final launch attempt less than a minute before liftoff.

Astra planned to launch its Rocket 3.0 vehicle from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island as the first of two orbital launches for the DARPA Launch Challenge. However, controllers halted the countdown 53 seconds before a 3:55 p.m. Eastern liftoff because of guidance, navigation and control (GNC) data from the rocket described as “off-nominal.”

Astra had a launch window that was open through 6:30 p.m. Eastern, but about a half-hour before the window closed scrubbed the launch for the day, unable to resolve the GNC problem.

“We saw some data that concerned us and we decided it would be better to scrub the launch and try again another day, because if the data was correct, it could have definitely caused a problem with the flight,” said Chris Kemp, co-founder and chief executive of Astra, during the DARPA webcast of the launch attempt. “Winning the challenge would have been fantastic today, but our objective, really, is to reach orbit in as few flights as possible.”

Astra, in a statement posted to its website, said it would “plan to attempt another launch attempt as soon as possible,” but didn’t disclose a specific launch date.

Kemp said in a later call with reporters that the company was still diagnosing the root cause of the problem, and will also need to modify its launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration for a future launch not associated with the competition. The payload for the launch, a set of cubesats provided by DARPA, will be replaced by one of a “big line” of commercial customers willing to take a risk on an untried rocket.

“That is probably not a day or two. It’s more like a week or two,” he said of the timeframe of the next launch. “It’s certainly not a month or two.”

However, the scrub means the company is no longer eligible for up to $12 million in prizes from the DARPA Launch Challenge. Prior to the March 2 launch attempt DARPA announced this would be the final opportunity for the company to perform the first of two launches required by the competition. Astra had a two-week window to perform the launch, which was extended a day because of poor weather.

Had Astra reached orbit on this launch, it would have received $2 million. The company would have then attempted a second launch later in March, from a different pad at the same spaceport. If that launch was successful the company could have won $10 million.

Astra was one of three finalists announced in April 2019, a year after formally starting the competition. At the time, the company was only known as a “stealth” competitor and did not reveal its name and other details until a month ago.

The other two finalists dropped out of the competition last fall. Vector exited the competition in September because of financial difficulties that led to a bankruptcy filing, and Virgin Orbit left a month later so it could focus on other customers.

Todd Master, manager of the competition at DARPA, said on the webcast the company did achieve a lot in demonstrating it could set up on an unimproved launch site — a concrete slab — and be ready to launch in two weeks.

“It was a hard challenge,” he said. “They got almost there, almost made it to finish line. They just didn’t quite make it. But we learn a lot from these challenges and we think that even being able to get to the point we got to will demonstrate to folks that this is something that is right on the cusp of the possible.”

While the challenge is over, Master said on the later call with reporters that DARPA is looking at other ways of demonstrating responsive launch capabilities. One option in the “very, very early stages” of discussion is to incorporate a responsive launch into a military exercise, launching a satellite that would provide data to forces involved in that exercise. That effort, he said, would likely involve working with the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command.

“Trying to pursue flexible and responsive launch is actually something DARPA’s been at for quite a while, and hasn’t quote gotten there yet,” he said, a reference to a number of vehicle development efforts sponsored by the agency that failed to reach orbit. “I think this is the among the closest that we’ve gotten.”


Source: https://spacenews.com/darpa-launch-challenge-ends-without-winner/
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Odp: [SN] DARPA Launch Challenge ends without winner
« Odpowiedź #1 dnia: Marzec 06, 2020, 08:14 »
After last-minute abort, DARPA Launch Challenge ends without a winner
March 3, 2020 Stephen Clark [SFN]


Astra’s small satellite launcher stands vertical at Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Credit: John Kraus/Astra

Astra engineers scrubbed a launch attempt Monday at Kodiak Island, Alaska, to assess troubling data from a guidance, navigation and control sensor on the company’s new small satellite launcher, ending a bid to win up to $12 million in prize money from a U.S. military research agency.

Monday’s countdown was aborted on the final day of a 15-day window set by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which offered Astra a $2 million prize if it successfully placed three small CubeSats into orbit.

DARPA announced the Launch Challenge in 2018, offering an incentive to commercial launch companies to demonstrate the ability of their orbital-class rockets to the off from any launch site, and on short notice.

If Astra succeeded in reaching orbit on the first launch of the challenge, DARPA would have offered $10 million more to Astra if it could do it again from a different launch pad before the end of March. Part of the challenge was the late notice DARPA gave Astra about the launch site, payloads and target orbit.

For the first launch of the challenge, DARPA gave Astra details about the payloads less than 30 days before the opening of the launch window. And Astra was not allowed to deliver its rocket or portable ground support equipment to the launch site until a few days before liftoff, forcing the company to demonstrate its ability to quickly set up for a flight.

“It was a hard challenge,” said Todd Master, program manager for DARPA’s Launch Challenge. “We set it to be achievable but certainly DARPA holds a bar for really hard tasks that we ask our competitors to do. They got almost there, almost made it to the finish line, didn’t quite make it.

“But we learn a lot from these challenges, and we think that even being able to get to the point we got to will demonstrate to folks that this is something that is something that is right on the cusp of possible, and we anticipate that in the very near future we’ll be able to see those approaches succeed,” Master said.

“We were really hoping to hand over a big check today, but we are very hopeful that the sort of things we put in place and the incentives we provided will continue to spur some innovation and get us to where we want to be,” he said.

Astra was attempting to launch its first orbital-class rocket to meet the goals of the DARPA Launch Challenge. The two-stage vehicle, which stands 38 feet (11.6 meters) tall, was set to lift off from Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska, with three CubeSats and an on-board tracking beacon.

Astra calls its first satellite launcher Rocket 3, or Rocket 3.0. The specific vehicle slated for Astra’s first orbital launch is named “1 of 3.”

“This was our first test launch of Rocket 3, and we called it 1 of 3 because we believed that it would probably take three launches before we could successfully deliver a satellite into Earth orbit, so we knew that this was a long shot going into it, but understood how strategically important responsive launch was to the government,” said Chris Kemp, Astra’s co-founder and CEO.

Headquartered in Alameda, California, Astra was established in 2016 and operated in stealth mode until early February, when Bloomberg published an exclusive story about the company’s progress and plans.

Monday’s launch attempt came after several delays in late February caused by minor technical issues and bad weather. After poor weather thwarted attempts to launch Astra’s Rocket 3 over the weekend, DARPA gave Astra an extra day Monday to ensure the company had a shot to launch the mission on a day with favorable conditions.



Mike Curie, host of DARPA’s Launch Challenge webcasts, and DARPA program manager Todd Master. Credit: DARPA

Monday’s countdown appeared to go well until the final minute before launch.

“As we neared the end of the count, 53 seconds before launch, we saw some data from a sensor that really concerned us, and we huddled up as a team and made the call that as wonderful as it would have been to take that check off your hands (speaking to DARPA), we wanted to try to get to orbit in these (first) three launches, and if that data were real it could have caused problem in flight,” Kemp said.

“Our top priority is safety, and anything that we knew that could impact the trajectory of the flight was just totally an unacceptable risk,” he said. “We wanted to make sure we had a full (investigation of the) root cause of it.”

The suspect data came from a sensor in the rocket’s guidance, navigation and control system, according to Astra officials. Kemp said the technical issue was “frustrating” but serious enough to warrant examination.

“Our team now is looking at the sensor and looking at what might have caused the data we saw, so that we can get back out there and fly again,” Kemp said.

Although the Launch Challenge ended without a winner, Master said the program achieved many of its objectives.

Three companies qualified for the competition last year. But Vector Launch, one of the launch firms, ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy last year before ever conducting an orbital launch attempt. The other company, Virgin Orbit, withdrew from the DARPA Launch Challenge to focus on commercial missions, according to DARPA.

“We think we’ve been able to enact from a regulatory standpoint and getting people’s heads around how do you do this quickly, when most folks really seek to this very long in advance, will help us as we look toward future use of responsive space in the military,” he said. “We also think that our push or incentive from the government side for launch vehicle providers to develop systems that are inherently sort of flexible and responsive … has helped us a lot to get closer to that, and Astra has certainly designed a system that appears to be very capable of doing that.”


Astra plans to try again within weeks, DARPA eyes follow-up to Launch Challenge

Astra aims to try again to send its first satellite launcher into the sky within weeks, once engineers determine the cause of the technical issue that thwarted Monday’s countdown.

“We are focused on ‘root-causing’ the anomaly we saw with the sensor,” Kemp said. “Whether it’s an issue with the actual sensor, whether it’s something on the vehicle that we need to better understand, as soon as we address the issue definitively and can get a license and put the regulatory stuff in place, we’ll launch again.

“That probably is not a day or two,” he said. “It’s more like a week or two, but it’s certainly not a month or two.”

The payloads provided by DARPA for the Launch Challenge will be removed from the rocket and returned to their owners, according to Master.

“We put out a call for payload providers and folks who were … looking either for space access on what was, more or less, a free basis, and/or or had a particular interest in responsive space,” Master said.

The payloads selected for DARPA’s Launch Challenge included a Prometheus CubeSat developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Department of Defense, one in a series of Prometheus CubeSats aimed “reducing tasking and data dissemination timelines to provide military operators with tactically relevant information.”

Two identical CubeSats from the University of South Florida were also slated for launch on a mission named ARCE-1.

The twin CubeSats “will fly together in the same orbit and perform inter-satellite networked communications and a high degree of system autonomy,” according to DARPA.

“Our intention is to de-integrate the payloads from the launch vehicle and get those payloads back to the providers,” Master said. “We’re taking somewhat of a risk with a rocket that they hadn’t flown on before.”

When DARPA solicited proposals for CubeSats to fly on the Launch Challenge missions, the satellite owners did not know which rockets their payloads would ride into space.

“So those folks really kind of stuck their necks out in a big way, and we want to afford them the possibility to get their payload back to take another chance to get to orbit on someone else,” Master said. “If they chose to do something with Astra directly, that’s certainly something that they could choose to do. But otherwise, we’re just basically going to de-integrate those payloads and return them to their respective providers.”

Kemp said Astra has a “number of customers” interested in securing capacity on the next launch attempt.

“There’s a big line of folks waiting,” he said Monday evening in a conference call with reporters.

When asked if Astra would webcast its next launch attempt, Kemp said: “I would say that’s probably a yes. We had a pretty positive response.”

DARPA provided a live video stream of Monday’s launch attempt.

Despite the weather woes of the last few days, Kemp said Astra remains committed to launching from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The site has hosted suborbital missile tests, including suborbital test launches by Astra, but the last orbital-class rocket that flew from Kodiak Island took off in 2011.

“We have a long-term commitment to the Kodiak complex in Alaska because frankly it is one of the best places in the country to launch from,” Kemp said. “It’s a pure commercial spaceport that has an incredibly agile and fantastic team up there that’s supported us in previous launches, and in this launch.”

Astra builds its rockets at its headquarters in California, just across the bay from San Francisco. The company is manufacturing its next two rockets for subsequent orbital launch attempts, and Astra intends to mass-produce rockets to loft small satellites for the U.S. military, commercial customers and other clients.

Rocket 3, or Rocket 3.0, can haul around 25 pounds (55 kilograms) of payload into a polar sun-synchronous orbit, according to Astra.

Kemp said Astra would likely need to modify its launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration before its next launch attempt.

“But it is substantially the same license going to the same orbit with the same kind of payload class,” he said.

DARPA does not intend to arrange another Launch Challenge, Master said, but the agency is looking at other ways to demonstrate the capabilities of light-class, responsive satellite launchers.

DARPA says it wants companies like Astra at the ready to deliver military payloads into orbit at low cost on short notice, giving commanders the ability to rapidly deploy orbiting assets or reconstitute communications and surveillance networks.

A responsive, on-demand launch system has been on the U.S. military’s wish list for years. DARPA has sponsored several of the military’s efforts to support development of such a launch vehicle, with little success.

A flexible small satellite launcher would help the military with “things like battlefield reconnaissance, battle damage assessment, things that we use very tactically today,” Master said in a conference call with reporters Feb. 18. “We use those tactically when we have air dominance and air control. It gets a lot harder to do when we’re talking about protected airspace of over other countries or near adversaries who have capability to deny us that.”

DARPA’s Experimental Spaceplane Program, formerly known as the XS-1, effectively ended last month when Boeing pulled out of the partnership. DARPA had selected Boeing to lead development of a reusable hypersonic booster that could take off like a rocket, deploy an upper stage to send a payload into orbit, then return to Earth for a runway landing.

Another DARPA program — the Airborne Launch Assist Space Access, or ALASA, initiative — ended in 2015 without placing anything into orbit. Through the ALASA program, DARPA and Boeing aimed to develop an air-launched rocket that could place a small satellite in orbit after dropping from the belly of an F-15E fighter jet.

DARPA also supported the launch of the first two flights of SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket in 2006 and 2007. Both missions failed to reach orbit, and after finally achieving success with the Falcon 1, SpaceX terminated the program in favor of the larger Falcon 9 rocket.

“From our perspective, a lot of the things that we wanted to see in terms of system developments, we saw across a couple of different providers (in the Launch Challenge),” Master said Monday.

“We have seen sort of the evolution of launch vehicle systems that are capable of meeting, or are at least designed to be both flexible, sort of launch from anywhere, and responsive, launch anytime,” he said. “So we know those systems exist, and we feel like providing some incentive as the first government customer to really put money up for somebody to go do that was impactful to the industry.

“How do we continue to pursue this? Trying to pursue flexible and responsive launch is actually something DARPA has been at for quite a while, and hasn’t quite gotten there yet,” he said. “I think this is among the closest that we’ve got.”

While DARPA has been involved in responsive launch initiatives for more than a decade, the military utility of such a system has only increased, officials said.

“I think that’s partly due to the increased capability that you see out of small satellites,” he said. “They’re kind of part and parcel to responsive launch. While responsive launch generally winds up being with smaller vehicles, using small satellites in a way that’s effective for the military is more possible than it used to be in the past.”

He said DARPA is discussing with the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command the possibility of demonstrating a responsive satellite launch capability during a military exercise.

“So could we take a major military exercise, (and) in the course of that exercise actually demonstrate the ability to put something on orbit, in true rapid fashion, where the warfighter is really waiting for it, show that you can deliver new data that didn’t previously exist prior to that exercise starting, and sort of change their perspective on how they use space in a way that’s more tactical?

“It’s in the very early planning stages,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of interest from the rest of the department in doing so, to show that it can actually be implemented and convince users of the value of it, and that would probably be, if we’re going to pursue something else in this arena, what our next logical step would be.”


Source: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/03/03/after-last-minute-abort-darpa-launch-challenge-ends-without-a-winner/

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Odp: [SN] Astra narrowly misses reaching orbit on second launch
« Odpowiedź #2 dnia: Grudzień 16, 2020, 03:36 »
Astra narrowly misses reaching orbit on second launch
by Jeff Foust — December 15, 2020


Astra's Rocket 3.2 vehicle lifts off from Kodiak Island, Alaska, Dec. 15. Credit: Astra/John Kraus

WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle developer Astra Space fell just short of reaching orbit on its second launch attempt Dec. 15, but the company is “beyond ecstatic” with the performance of the rocket.

Astra’s Rocket 3.2 vehicle lifted off from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska at 3:55 p.m. Eastern. The company did not provide a live webcast of the launch but instead offered a series of updates via Twitter as the vehicle made it through its initial phases of flight, including main engine cutoff, stage separation and passing the Karman Line, the 100-kilometer altitude commonly used as the demarcation of space.

The rocket’s upper stage fired its single engine, gaining altitude and speed. However, Chris Kemp, chief executive of Astra, said in a call with reporters that the upper stage engine shut down about 12 to 15 seconds early when it depleted its fuel. The rocket reached a peak altitude of 390 kilometers and speed of 7.2 kilometers per second, about 0.5 kilometers short of orbital velocity.

While falling just shy of reaching orbit, Kemp said Astra considered the launch a success. “The hardware on this system performed flawlessly through the entire flight,” he said. “This far exceeded our team’s expectations.” Fine-tuning the mixture ratio between kerosene fuel and liquid oxygen should allow the vehicle to reach orbit on its next launch.

Rocket 3.2 was the second in a series of three launches Astra announced earlier this year that would demonstrate it could achieve orbit. On its first, Rocket 3.1 in September, the guidance system induced an oscillation in the rocket shortly after liftoff, triggering a shutdown of the engines. That rocket crashed a short distance from the launch site.

Kemp said the company would have been happy on this latest launch to get through a successful burn of the first stage. “Most of the team would have called it a day and felt we had a very successful flight because it would have meant the first stage of the rocket was de-risked,” he said.

Astra operates launches with just a team of five at the launch site itself. That team had to quarantine when one person tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Kemp said Astra sent a backup team of five people to take over launch preparations. “That team was able to set up the launch system, set up the rocket and launch the rocket in just a few days,” he said. “Had that not been possible, we certainly would not have launched today.”

This launch did not carry a payload, but did simulate payload deployment to test that system. Kemp said that, given what Rocket 3.2 achieved, they expect to carry a payload on the next launch, Rocket 3.3. That vehicle is about 75% complete. “We’ll be launching it in a few months, as soon as we can get back up to Kodiak,” he said.

The success of this launch, Kemp argued, is a vindication of the company’s iterative approach to launch vehicle development. Prior to September’s Rocket 3.1 launch, the company attempted a launch of its Rocket 3.0 in March, only to have the vehicle destroyed because of a fueling mishap during a dress rehearsal. It also performed two suborbital test launches in 2018.

Kemp, in the call, thanked the company’s investors who “really bet on a strategy that is unlike any other company that has ever attempted this: that we would intentionally fly things that we knew wouldn’t quite work just so that we could learn from the flights. Today demonstrates that this is the right strategy.”

The company plans to continue to revise the vehicle design even after reaching orbit to increase performance and decrease cost. At some point, though, the company will produce a set of “a dozen or so” identical copies of the same design, Kemp said.

“This outcome surprised us and is certainly a nice Christmas present for the team,” he said of the launch. “It’s been a tough year for the team and I think we all needed this victory. We’re just beyond ecstatic by today’s events.”


Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-narrowly-misses-reaching-orbit-on-second-launch/

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #3 dnia: Sierpień 29, 2021, 09:43 »
Astra Rocket 3.3 launch fails
by Jeff Foust — August 28, 2021, Updated 8:40 p.m. Eastern with comments from media call. [SN]


Astra's Rocket 3.3 could be seen tipping briefly seconds after engine ignition. The vehicle moved sideways for nearly 20 seconds ascending, but failed about two minutes later. Credit: Astra/NASASpaceFlight.com webcast

WASHINGTON — Astra’s third attempt to reach orbit failed Aug. 28 when its Rocket 3.3 vehicle struggled to get off the launch pad because of an engine shutdown and eventually failed in flight.

The small launch vehicle, designated LV0006 by Astra, ignited its five first-stage engines at about 6:35 p.m. Eastern from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island. Various issues, including taking additional time to load propellant and update software configurations, delayed the launch from the opening of the window at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-rocket-3-3-launch-fails/

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #3 dnia: Sierpień 29, 2021, 09:43 »

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #4 dnia: Listopad 04, 2021, 19:07 »
Astra prepares for next launch after identifying cause of August launch failure
by Jeff Foust — October 12, 2021 [SN]


Astra says leaking propellant ignited when its Rocket 3.3 vehicle lifted off Aug. 28, disabling a fuel pump and shutting down one of five first-stage engines less than a second after liftoff. Credit: Astra/NASASpaceFlight.com webcast

WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle company Astra has identified the cause of an August launch failure and says it will make its next attempt as soon as late this month.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-prepares-for-next-launch-after-identifying-cause-of-august-launch-failure/

Offline Adam.Przybyla

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #5 dnia: Listopad 04, 2021, 19:24 »
... wydaje sie, ze aby zrozumiec co bedzie sie dzialo z ta fima i kto ja tworzy warto moze zerknac na sylwetke ich CEO,
Krisa Kempa. Gosc zrobil nielada zamieszanie w przeszlosci wplywajac na to co dzieje sie w  oprogramowaniu, nie tylko
w tym co robil w NASA ale takze poza nia. Sadze, ze to ze zaangazowal sie w ta firme, w jakis sposob jest powiazane z tym
co robil poprzednio, choc pryznam, narazie nie szukalem zbytnio infomracji na ten temat. Z powazaniem
                                                                         Adam Przybyla
Zrodla:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Kemp
https://www.nasa.gov/open/open-source-development.html
« Ostatnia zmiana: Listopad 04, 2021, 19:29 wysłana przez Adam.Przybyla »
https://twitter.com/AdamPrzybyla
JID: adam.przybyla@gmail.com

Offline Adam.Przybyla

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #6 dnia: Listopad 06, 2021, 23:41 »
... no i ciekawostka. Troche pokazujaca w ktora strone idzie Astra. Z powazaniem
                                                       Adam Przybyla
https://twitter.com/LionnetPierre/status/1456543991298727942
https://twitter.com/AdamPrzybyla
JID: adam.przybyla@gmail.com

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #7 dnia: Listopad 20, 2021, 23:24 »
Astra’s Rocket 3.3 reaches orbit on fourth attempt
by Jeff Foust — November 20, 2021 [SN]


Astra Space's Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0007, lifts off Nov. 20 from Kodiak Island, Alaska, on the company's first successful orbital launch. Credit: NASASpaceflight LLC and Astra Space Inc.

WASHINGTON — Astra Space’s Rocket 3.3 successfully reached orbit on a Nov. 20 launch, the fourth orbital launch attempt by the small launch vehicle startup.

The Rocket 3.3 vehicle, with the serial number LV0007, lifted off at 1:16 a.m. Eastern from Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska on Kodiak Island. Astra scrubbed a launch attempt the previous day after more than two hours of delays.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astras-rocket-3-3-reaches-orbit-on-fourth-attempt/

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra
« Odpowiedź #8 dnia: Luty 08, 2022, 07:55 »
Testing underway for Astra’s first launch from Cape Canaveral
January 12, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]


File photo of a previous Astra rocket on a launch pad in Alaska. Credit: Astra

Tests are beginning this week at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for the first flight of Astra’s small satellite launcher from the Florida spaceport, following the company’s successful November demonstration mission from Alaska.

Astra’s launch vehicle, dubbed Rocket 3.3 and known by its tail number LV0008, has shipped from the company’s headquarters and factory in Alameda, California, to Cape Canaveral for testing ahead of liftoff later this month.
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/01/12/astra-lv0008-pre-launch-testing/

Astra finalizes plans for first Florida launch
by Jeff Foust — February 1, 2022 [SN]


Astra test-fired its Rocket 3.3 vehicle Jan. 22 ahead of a launch from Cape Canaveral for NASA's VCLS program. Credit: Astra/John Kraus

WASHINGTON — Astra Space will launch four NASA-sponsored cubesats on its Rocket 3.3 vehicle as soon as Feb. 5 on a mission that will be the first to use a streamlined set of commercial launch regulations.

Astra announced Feb. 1 that it expected to launch its vehicle from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 5, pending receipt of a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which the company expects by Feb. 4. A three-hour launch window opens at 1 p.m. Eastern, with a backup launch opportunity Feb. 6.
https://spacenews.com/astra-finalizes-plans-for-first-florida-launch/

Astra aborts launch attempt
by Jeff Foust — February 7, 2022 [SN]


Astra’s Rocket 3.3 vehicle briefly ignited its first stage engines but shut them down before liftoff because of what the company later called a minor telemetry issue. Credit: NASASpaceFlight.com/Astra Space

WASHINGTON — Astra Space aborted and then scrubbed a launch of its Rocket 3.3 small launch vehicle Feb. 7 seconds before liftoff.

After a delay of 50 minutes to assess upper-level winds, Astra counted down to a launch of the Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0008, at 1:50 p.m. Eastern but aborted just as the engines started up. The company took nearly 90 minutes to investigate the issue before announcing it was scrubbing the launch for the day.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-aborts-launch-attempt/
« Ostatnia zmiana: Czerwiec 21, 2022, 20:09 wysłana przez Orionid »

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra Space
« Odpowiedź #9 dnia: Luty 11, 2022, 09:30 »
Astra launch of NASA-sponsored cubesats fails
by Jeff Foust — February 10, 2022. Updated 4:25 p.m. Eastern with stock performance information. [SN]


Astra’s Rocket 3.3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral Feb. 10. The launch failed when the upper stage appeared to tumble after stage separation. Credit: Astra Space/NASASpaceFlight.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The first operational launch of Astra’s Rocket 3.3 vehicle failed Feb. 10 when the rocket’s upper stage appeared to tumble out of control after stage separation.

The rocket, designated LV0008 by Astra, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 3 p.m. Eastern. The launch suffered several days of delays because of a range issue as well as a last-second scrub during the previous launch attempt Feb. 7.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-launch-of-nasa-sponsored-cubesats-fails/

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Odp: Artykuły o Astra Space
« Odpowiedź #10 dnia: Marzec 10, 2022, 08:11 »
Astra blames launch failure on wiring error and software flaw
by Jeff Foust — March 8, 2022 [SN]


Astra’s Rocket 3.3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral Feb. 10. The launch failed when the upper stage appeared to tumble after stage separation. Credit: Astra Space/NASASpaceFlight.com

WASHINGTON — Astra Space said March 7 it identified two problems that led to the failure of a launch last month as the company gears up for a new launch that may be imminent.

In a March 7 statement, the company said an investigation into a Feb. 10 failure of its Rocket 3.3 vehicle to reach orbit determined the root cause was an error in a wiring diagram for the payload fairing that kept all its separation mechanisms from firing. That, in turn, kept the fairing from separating until the rocket’s upper stage, which is encapsulated by the fairing, fired its engine.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-blames-launch-failure-on-wiring-error-and-software-flaw/

Astra gears up for next launch, signs Spaceflight contract
by Jeff Foust — March 14, 2022 [SN]


Astra says its next Rocket 3.3 launch, taking place from Kodiak Island, Alaska, as soon as March 14, will be the first in a multi-launch contract with Spaceflight. Credit: NASASpaceflight LLC and Astra Space Inc.

AUSTIN, Texas — Astra Space says it will attempt its next Rocket 3.3 launch as soon as March 14 as the first flight in a multi-launch contract with Spaceflight.

Astra said March 14 it received a license from the Federal Aviation Administration for that launch from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:22 p.m. Eastern in a 27-minute launch window, with a backup date of March 15.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astra-gears-up-for-next-launch-signs-spaceflight-contract/

Astra’s Rocket 3.3 returns to flight with successful launch
by Jeff Foust — March 15, 2022 Updated 6:45 p.m. Eastern with stock information. [SN]


Astra's Rocket 3.3 vehicle lifts off March 15 from Kodiak Island, Alaska, carrying payloads for three customers in a mission arranged by Spaceflight. Credit: NASASpaceflight LLC/Astra Space Inc.

WASHINGTON — Astra successfully returned its Rocket 3.3 vehicle to flight March 15, placing several payloads into low Earth orbit.

The Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0009 by Astra, lifted off at 12:22 p.m. Eastern from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island. The company scrubbed a launch attempt the previous day because of poor weather.

Source: https://spacenews.com/astras-rocket-3-3-returns-to-flight-with-successful-launch/

Swarm launched satellites on Astra mission
by Jeff Foust — March 22, 2022 [SN]


The March 15 launch of Astra's Rocket 3.3 carried 16 SpaceBEE satellites for Swarm Technologies, a customer who was undisclosed at the time of the launch. Credit: Brady Kenniston/Astra

WASHINGTON — Swarm Technologies was the unidentified customer of an Astra Space launch this month that placed 16 of its tiny satellites into orbit.

Source: https://spacenews.com/swarm-launched-satellites-on-astra-mission/

Astra wins order for electric thrusters from LeoStella
by Jeff Foust — April 12, 2022 [SN]


The Astra Spacecraft Engine that Astra Space sold “multiple” units of to LeoStella was developed by Apollo Fusion, a startup acquired by Astra last year as part of efforts to diversify beyond launch. Credit: Astra

WASHINGTON — Astra Space announced April 12 an order of electric thrusters by LeoStella, part of the company’s efforts to move beyond launch.

Astra said it sold “multiple” Astra Spacecraft Engines to LeoStella, the Seattle-based smallsat manufacturer. The companies did not disclose the value of the agreement or even the number of thrusters ordered, but Astra said those thrusters will be delivered starting later this year and continuing into 2023.
https://spacenews.com/astra-wins-order-for-electric-thrusters-from-leostella/

Astra prepares for TROPICS launch campaign
by Jeff Foust — May 7, 2022 [SN]


Astra, which conducted a launch of its Rocket 3.3 vehicle from Cape Canaveral in February, will return for three launches of NASA’s TROPICS satellites later this quarter. Credit: Astra/John Kraus

WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle developer Astra says it is ready to perform a series of launches for NASA once it receives a license for those missions.

In a May 5 earnings call, Astra executives said they were ready to perform the first of three launches of its Rocket 3.3 vehicle from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station carrying cubesats for NASA’s Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of SmallSats (TROPICS) mission. The six satellites will be launched on three Rocket 3.3 vehicles over a relatively short period.
https://spacenews.com/astra-prepares-for-tropics-launch-campaign/

Astra to launch from U.K. spaceport
by Jeff Foust — May 10, 2022 [SN]


Astra, which has conducted launches from Alaska and Florida using small launch teams, says it will start launches from SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands starting in 2023. Credit: Astra Space

WASHINGTON — Astra announced May 10 that it plans to carry out launches from a spaceport in the Shetland Islands starting in 2023 as part of international expansion plans.

Astra said it is partnering with SaxaVord Spaceport to provide launch services from that facility, located on the island of Unst, the northernmost of the Shetland Islands. Those launches would begin in 2023 pending final agreements and regulatory approvals.
https://spacenews.com/astra-to-launch-from-u-k-spaceport/

Astra reveals details of next, larger rocket
by Jeff Foust — May 12, 2022 [SN]


An illustration of Astra’s Rocket 4.0, which will be able to place up to 300 kilograms into low Earth orbit. Credit: Astra

WASHINGTON — Astra disclosed details about its new launch vehicle that will be capable of carrying heavier payloads and flying more frequently.

At its “Spacetech Day” event at its Alameda, California, headquarters May 12, company executives offered some details about what it calls Launch System 2.0, a system that includes a new rocket called Rocket 4.0.
https://spacenews.com/astra-reveals-details-of-next-larger-rocket/

Astra ready for first of three NASA TROPICS launches
by Jeff Foust — June 9, 2022 [SN]


Astra will perform the first of three launches of NASA TROPICS cubesats from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral as soon as June 12. Credit: Astra/John Kraus

WASHINGTON — Astra Space is preparing to conduct the first of three launches of NASA cubesats to monitor tropical storms as soon as June 12, pending receipt of a launch license.

The company announced June 8 that it was ready for the launch of two Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS) cubesats on its Rocket 3.3 vehicle from Cape Canaveral on June 12. The launch is the first of three under a NASA contract awarded in February 2021 valued at $7.95 million.
https://spacenews.com/astra-ready-for-first-of-three-nasa-tropics-launches/

Astra launch of NASA TROPICS cubesats fails
by Jeff Foust — June 12, 2022 [SN]


Astra’s Rocket 3.3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral June 12 carrying two NASA TROPICS cubesats. The launch failure, though, when the upper stage shut down prematurely. Credit: NASASpaceflight LLC/Astra Space Inc.

ARCADIA, Calif. — An Astra launch of two NASA cubesats to monitor tropical storms failed June 12 when the rocket’s upper stage shut down prematurely.

Astra’s Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0010, lifted off from Space Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:43 p.m. Eastern. The liftoff took place near the end of a two-hour window that opened at 12 p.m. Eastern, after an initial launch attempt was stopped less than two minutes before liftoff because of an issue with the condition of the vehicle’s liquid oxygen propellant.

The launch initially went according to plan, with the first stage firing for three minutes, followed by engine shutdown, deployment of the payload fairing, and stage separation. The upper stage engine ignited for a burn intended to last 5 minutes and 15 seconds, according to a mission timeline distributed by the company.
https://spacenews.com/astra-launch-of-nasa-tropics-cubesats-fails/

Two hurricane research satellites lost in Astra launch failure
June 12, 2022 Stephen Clark [SFN]


Astra’s Rocket 3.3 vehicle lifted off at 1:43 p.m. EDT (1743 GMT) Sunday from Cape Canaveral with the first two NASA TROPICS hurricane research satellites. Credit: Astra / NASASpaceflight

(...) “We regret not being able to deliver the first two TROPICS satellites,” tweeted Chris Kemp, co-founder and CEO of Astra, a company founded in 2016 that focuses on small satellite launch services. “Nothing is more important to our team than the trust of our customers and the successful delivery of the remaining TROPICS satellites. We will share more when we have fully reviewed data.”

The loss of the first two TROPICS satellites isn’t a death knell for the mission. NASA officials said before Sunday’s launch that only four of the six satellites, or two of the three launches from Astra, need to work to meet the mission’s success criteria.

“Although today’s launch with Astra did not go as planned, the mission offered a great opportunity for new science and launch capabilities,” tweeted Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s science mission directorate. “Earth venture missions, like this one, are low cost opportunities to send NASA science to space. It also enables more opportunities for researchers to have access to space.” (...)
https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/06/12/two-hurricane-research-satellites-lost-in-astra-launch-failure/
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Odp: Artykuły o Astra Space
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