Small Satellite Launch Company Astra Launches but Fails to Reach Orbit
In a Tweet, Astra, the San Francisco area small satellite launch company announced that its Rocket 3.2 had successfully launched today from the Kodiak Spaceport in Alaska.
While the launch was successful, it did not reach orbit. Eric Berger of Ars Technica Tweeted after the launch he had talked to Astra. who told him I “just finished a call with @Astra. Rocket was 0.5 m/s short of orbit. With a better fuel mixture in the upper stage it would have orbited. Apogee of 390km. Rocket 3.3 will carry a payload, and there will be no hardware or software changes.”
Astra posted a video to their Twitter account showing the launch and flight to orbit.
A quick video recap of our 8.5-minute flight to space today! pic.twitter.com/gvElF4fbAZ
— Astra (@Astra) December 16, 2020