Astra Space Fails to Bring NASA CubeSat to Orbit After Rocket’s Upper Stage Flew Out of Control

Four small NASA-funded satellites were lost in orbit on Thursday after being launched on an Astra Space rocket.

The company's 3.3 rocket launched from a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 3 pm ET to the delight of a multitude of Astra workers watching on live television, SpaceNews said.

However, onboard cameras revealed the rocket's second stage booster spinning out of control a few minutes after launch, as it was about to break out for its journey further into orbit.

One of the most critical movements in space travel is when a rocket's booster detaches from the top load to transport the payload, which Astra failed to execute successfully.

Astra Space's NASA CubeSat Payload Launch Fails Dramatically

The story of Astra's aborted launch has gone viral, and the firm has issued an apologetic statement on Twitter. The company explained what went wrong during the latest trip.

Astra said that it would perform better on the next launch and that difficulties on the present flight were to blame for the failure to deliver.

A netizen on Twitter posted a video of the rocket's demise, which captured the situation as it unfolded throughout the voyage.

Because the top stage rocket failed to separate correctly from the lower stage, the rocket's cargo lost control and went off track.

Chris Kemp, Astra's chief executive, acknowledged on Twitter that they experienced an issue in today's flight. He likewise issued a public apology over the tragic incident.

Despite a successful launch, according to NASA Space Flight's video footage of the event, the rocket's next minutes on the air did not prove to be notable or memorable.

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

Astra has yet to issue a detailed report on what transpired during the rocket's failed launch, particularly the precise diagnosis of what went wrong with the changeover.

Nonetheless, the corporation will investigate what occurred today in collaboration with the US Federal Aviation Administration.

"Missions like these are critical for developing new launch vehicles in this growing commercial sector," Hamilton Fernandez, mission manager with NASA's Launch Services Program, said in a statement after today's failure.

"The Astra team demonstrated dedication to supporting NASA's mission. The lessons learned will benefit them and the agency going forward."

About Astra Space, Previous Launches

With its range of mass-produced, cost-effective, and ever-evolving rockets, Astra, formed in 2016, hopes to capture a substantial piece of the small-satellite launch industry.

The business had successfully launched four orbital flights before the incident, all of which were test missions from Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex, Space.com reported.

On two of the four flights, Astra was able to reach space. The firm's LV0007 made it to orbit on the most recent experiment, a mission for the US military that blasted out this past November - a significant milestone for the Bay Area startup.

During a test flight in December 2020, an Astra rocket made it to space but ran out of fuel before reaching orbital velocity.

The goal of today's mission was to expand on that accomplishment by putting Astra into operational flight.

LV0008, a member of Astra's Rocket 3 launch vehicle family, carried four small satellites that launched as part of NASA's Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program.

If the launch today had been successful, the tiny spacecraft would have performed various tasks at the last frontier.

RELATED ARTICLE: Astra Space's LV0006 Rocket Failed to Reach Orbit After Sliding Horizontally Off Its Pad  

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.