Watching Astra’s launch attempt tonight
Capitalism in space: Astra has made its live stream available for its orbital launch attempt tonight, scrubbed last night about ten minutes before liftoff.
This will be the company’s fourth attempt to launch a payload into orbit. The first three attempts failed in some manner.
I have embedded the company’s live stream, provided by NASASpaceflight LLC and Astra Space Inc., below the fold.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Capitalism in space: Astra has made its live stream available for its orbital launch attempt tonight, scrubbed last night about ten minutes before liftoff.
This will be the company’s fourth attempt to launch a payload into orbit. The first three attempts failed in some manner.
I have embedded the company’s live stream, provided by NASASpaceflight LLC and Astra Space Inc., below the fold.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I haven’t paid much attention to space flight during the last couple of years. Looking at it now, SO MUCH IS HAPPENING!
If you who read this were lingering along with space news day by day like I did, and I do now again. Please take a couple of years’ perspective, and it is a huge step for human kind. Again. Perhaps not this single launch, but on the whole it is getting much more intensive now year by year. Spaceflight is the future. It is happening.
Localfluff: What is happening now is what I predicted would happen a quarter century ago, in my final chapter of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8:
Congratulations to Astra for the success. The rocket design, in which the first stage carries the greater part of the propulsion capacity, is interesting.
Congratulations to Astra on reaching orbit.!
The more companies who can do this, the better. This one almost looked like it was launched from someone’s backyard. It had a very low tech feel to it, which is ironic considering we are talking about an orbital spacecraft. Perhaps that’s where the technology is right now. Pretty much anyone with money and know how (Blue Origin excepted) can put things in orbit. Very cool.
The second stage, which has a small engine that is pressure fed (no pumps), is unusually small compared to the first stage. This is why the end-of-burn speed of the first stage is here 4.1 km / s (2.7 km / s for Electron). With regard to the second stage and the overall rocket, there are definitely still opportunities to increase performance. For example, why don’t you use a vacuum version of the first stage engine and make the second stage much heavier. It should not add significantly to the overall manufacturing cost, but increase payload capacity and fairing diameter signficantly. What about the engine deal with Firefly? From which rocket production number will the new engine be used?