Astra Space Aborts First Florida Launch for the 2nd Time Due to Small Telemetry Issue

Astra Space postponed its maiden rocket launch from Florida for the second time in three days on Monday due to a "small telemetry issue."

The ELaNa 41 mission for NASA was slated to launch today from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on the California company's Launch Vehicle 0008 (LV0008).LV0008's first-stage engines kicked up on schedule at 1:50 p.m. EST. However, the rocket's software canceled a scheduled launch 13 seconds before liftoff.

"Unfortunately, the abort that was around our T-0 time was a minor telemetry issue that the team needs to work to resolve," Carolina Grossman, Astra's director of product management, said per Space.com. "So, unfortunately, we need to stand down from today's launch attempt."

Today's scrub was the ELaNa 41 mission's second. It was planned to launch on Saturday. However, the launch was canceled due to a problem with the launch range's radar system.

(Photo : AFP via Getty Images)
A Russia-built Proton rocket of the International Launch Services (ILS) with the EADS-Astrium-built Astra 2E satellite of the fleet operator SES of Luxembourg aboard blasts off from a launch pad in the Russian leased Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on September 30, 2013.

Astra Faces Criticism Amid Maiden Flight Schedule

As it prepared for its debut in Florida, Astra encountered criticism and distrust of its business concept. UPI said it is the first new private business to try an orbital launch from Florida since SpaceX began doing it more than a decade ago.

The countdown had been delayed by more than 35 minutes earlier due to concerns about the wind in the area.

Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral, Space Force Station, will host the launch. The business has already tested and launched its rocket from Alaska.

Four extremely small satellites, or CubeSats, have been installed on the rocket by the business created by NASA and university students. The spacecraft will conduct space experiments as part of a $3.9 million NASA contract awarded to Astra in 2020.

ALSO READ: Astra Identified the Cause of LV0006 Rocket Failure; Will Relaunch Before October Ends

According to NASA, the mission's name is Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) 41.

Under a new regulation that tries to shorten the licensing procedure, Astra has received a fast-tracked Federal Aviation Administration license for the launch.

Rockets to be Carried by Astra

Florida Today said Astra plans to create rockets quickly using off-the-shelf components and remote telemetry, claiming that its launch system can be put up anywhere in the globe with just a few shipping containers.

The satellites, made by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and three separate colleges, are as follows. More information on all four of them may be found here.

BAMA-1 is a spacecraft constructed by the University of Alabama to test a form of spacecraft sail that creates drag in the upper atmosphere, causing the vessel to deorbit quickly.

INCA, which stands for Ionospheric Neutron Content Analyzer and will examine the neutron spectrum in low-Earth orbit and was built by New Mexico State University.

QubeSat, a project led by the University of California, Berkeley, that will investigate the impact of various circumstances on quantum gyroscopes in space.

R5-S1, created by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to show how to manufacture very tiny satellites quickly and cheaply by performing some in-space camera inspection.