Astra launch fails when upper stage starts tumbling after stage separation
Capitalism in space: Astra’s first attempt to launch from Cape Canaveral and put commercial cubesats in orbit failed today when the upper stage started to tumble immediately after the first stage had separated.
Embedded below is video showing that tumbling. The full replay of the launch live stream can be viewed here.
The silver lining of this failure is that the first stage and all launch operations appeared to function perfectly, right up until after stage separation. Nonetheless, it is a failure, and the company will need to try again and succeed if it wants to survive in the aggressive new launch market.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Capitalism in space: Astra’s first attempt to launch from Cape Canaveral and put commercial cubesats in orbit failed today when the upper stage started to tumble immediately after the first stage had separated.
Embedded below is video showing that tumbling. The full replay of the launch live stream can be viewed here.
The silver lining of this failure is that the first stage and all launch operations appeared to function perfectly, right up until after stage separation. Nonetheless, it is a failure, and the company will need to try again and succeed if it wants to survive in the aggressive new launch market.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
For me it looks like this: The payload fairing (which also houses the second stage) did not open at the scheduled time and the second stage got stuck (which you can clearly see) until the two halves of the payload drove away with a delay. I felt like the second stage fired before the payload fairing was gone. This failed process caused the stage to tip over and to rotate aorund is transverse axis, which the control system was unable to correct.
At least 53,000 were watching the “NASASpaceflight” channel by launch time. ASTR stock reacted to the failure by setting an all time low.
Addition: It also appeared that the fairing halves were blown away by the engine gases. An addition in another respect: As you could see: The personnel effort to launch such a small rocket hardly differs from that of a much larger launch vehicle, which entails considerable cost disadvantages per kilogram of payload weight. This makes me very skeptical about the future of these very small launchers.
True, but Delta II had a lot of people fooled for many years on that subject.
It and it’s Thor parents from the USAF was our crutch of a national rocket. It was the face of Goldin’s “Faster Better Cheaper” mantra.
Delta II-more than SLS trying to get Apollo mojo back-it was that bloody menthol cigarette looking crutch JPL chain-smoked after Goldin handed them out like lollypops…that’s what held America back!
Ugh!!.
I HATED THAT ROCKET!
Failure details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLfl6ADRyu0
Willi-
Excellent Scott Manley stuff!
Wayne: Not much more info from Manley this time, as we discussed above.
Regarding Astra: The company should perhaps consider abandoning this particular rocket design and using their real world experience now to make a leap to a much larger and more capable launch vehicle.
Thor is a sore point. It was the fastest missile development in history, because the idea the USAF might be forced to use the Army developed Jupiter (essentially an extrapolation of Redstone and was way ahead) was totally beyond the pale. So, the US poured money into two duplicate programs instead of deciding on one or the other AND the boyz in blue were forced to use Jupiter anyway – hating it. Oh, Jupiter was a semi-mobile system, Thor was sunk in concrete. Which was more survivable?
Ellie in Space: “The evolution of SpaceTuber Scott Manley”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FPVDneMG8
My proposal: Astra should now seriously consider merging with Firefly. Astra still has a lot of money from the IPO that they could bring into the company association. The first step, namely the adoption of Firefly’s superior engine technology, has already been taken.