Astra's NASA mission suffers failure, loss of weather satellites

Astra Space

12/06/2022 19:03

By Joey Roulette
    WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - Rocket firm Astra Space's
 ASTR.O  mission to send tiny weather-monitoring NASA satellites
to orbit on Sunday failed after a second-stage booster engine
shut down early in space, according to the company's livestream
of the mission.
    The failure occurred roughly 10 minutes after a successful
liftoff of Astra's Rocket 3.3 from a launchpad at the Cape
Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
    "We had a nominal first-stage flight. However, the
upper-stage engine did shutdown early and we did not deliver our
payloads to orbit," said Astra's livestream commentator Amanda
Durk Frye.

 (Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
 ((Joey.Roulette@thomsonreuters.com; 7034696632;))