Jump to content

Astra Space Inc. (formerly Ventions) Launch


tater

Recommended Posts

Holding at T-15 min

 

Turned sound back on, sounds like go/no-go polling

before I turned sound off they said something about trying to "resolve this hold" so it's not just go/no-go.

Wayward boats is the hold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

"WASHINGTON — Astra Space announced Aug. 4 it is canceling its existing small launch vehicle after its most recent failure and will focus instead on a much larger vehicle that may not be ready to fly customers until 2024."

"The company, which reported a net loss of $82.3 million and negative adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $48.4 million in the second quarter, has $200.7 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand. The company announced Aug. 2 an agreement with B. Riley Principal Capital II to sell up to $100 million in stock over the next two years."

Never really been an Astra fan, tbh. The smallsat launch market is a dead end. Not flying anything for real until 2024? Bad time to enter the market assuming that by then we have Starship at some level, plus Vulcan, plus NG, and possibly the new Rocket Lab vehicle (ignoring outfits like Relativity and Firefly).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, tater said:

"WASHINGTON — Astra Space announced Aug. 4 it is canceling its existing small launch vehicle after its most recent failure and will focus instead on a much larger vehicle that may not be ready to fly customers until 2024."

"The company, which reported a net loss of $82.3 million and negative adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $48.4 million in the second quarter, has $200.7 million in cash and cash equivalents on hand. The company announced Aug. 2 an agreement with B. Riley Principal Capital II to sell up to $100 million in stock over the next two years."

Never really been an Astra fan, tbh. The smallsat launch market is a dead end. Not flying anything for real until 2024? Bad time to enter the market assuming that by then we have Starship at some level, plus Vulcan, plus NG, and possibly the new Rocket Lab vehicle (ignoring outfits like Relativity and Firefly).

Not to mention, that customer is NASA of all things. Who paid to launch those satellites in 2022, not 2024 (and the first of which failed to reach orbit). Not a good look in the slightest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/14/2022 at 7:55 AM, StrandedonEarth said:

Burn, baby, burn....

FVF2ugdUYAAaFnE?format=jpg&name=medium

I don't know why this has me laughing. 

Probably the absurd perfection of using a rocket to reach the sea-floor.  (This kind of stuff is why I still like people, despite, you know... everything)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Interesting article from Gizmodo on the failure of the Astra launch last year.

https://gizmodo.com/astra-investigation-uncovers-cause-failed-rocket-launch-1850179612

The Aether engine that Astra uses for its upper stage is a pressure-fed kerolox engine similar to the SpaceX Kestrel, but it evidently uses the kerosene for regenerative cooling. The Kestrel used helium pressurant for regenerative cooling. The investigation revealed that the temperature at the pad was greater than usual and so the temperature of the kerosene in the upper stage was elevated, leading to a phase change in the injector which reduced the flow of kerosene through the nozzle and caused a burn-through.

Rockets are hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Huh. Given the dire warnings of cooling phenomena I've heard floating about - polymerisation, coking and sulphur - how common is using kerosene to cool?

I wonder if they have to be careful about where they source their RP-1?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...