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

Astra Space

12/06/2022 20:29

(Adds details on mission)
    By Joey Roulette
    WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters) - Rocket firm Astra Space's
 ASTR.O  mission to send tiny storm-monitoring NASA satellites
to orbit on Sunday failed after a second-stage booster engine
shut down early in space.
    The failure occurred roughly 10 minutes after a successful
liftoff of Astra's Rocket 3.3 at 1:43 p.m. ET (1743 GMT) 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.
    The rocket was carrying two small satellites designed by the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory to
measure moisture and precipitation in tropical storm systems.
They were to be the first batch of a six-satellite constellation
managed by NASA, the rest of which Astra also plans to launch in
the future.
    The mission failure on Sunday was Astra's second this year
as the newcomer attempts to get its launch business off the
ground with Rocket 3.3, an expendable two-stage vehicle capable
of lifting 330 pounds (150 kg) of satellites to low-Earth orbit.
    Of Astra's seven attempts to reach orbit, which included
test missions carrying no revenue-generating payloads, two have
been successful - the first in November last year and the second
in March.
    NASA partners with burgeoning rocket companies to launch
low-cost science payloads as a way to spur growth in the rocket
industry.
    "Although today’s launch with @Astra did not go as planned,
the mission offered a great opportunity for new science and
launch capabilities," Thomas Zurbuchen, the head of NASA's
science unit that oversaw the mission, wrote on Twitter.
    "Even though we are disappointed right now, we know: There
is value in taking risks in our overall NASA Science portfolio
because innovation is required for us to lead." 

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