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.
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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.
I must unfortunately ask you for your financial support because I do not depend on ads and rely entirely on the generosity of readers to keep Behind the Black running. You can either make a one time donation for whatever amount you wish, or you sign up for a monthly subscription ranging from $2 to $15 through Paypal or $3 to $50 through Patreon.
Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I not only keep this site free from advertisements, I do not use the corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to promote my work. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
Or you can donate by using Zelle through your bank. You will need to give my name and email address (found at the bottom of the "About" page). The best part of this electronic option is that no fees will be deducted! What you donate will be what I receive.
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?