Astra Space Inc. (formerly Ventions) Launch

[tater]

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.

[Beccab]

The clock is going, t-9 mins

[tater]

hold

[Scotius]

Still on hold. Doesn't bode well.

 

And recycled. Better luck next time.

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Scotius

[Beccab]

 

[Beccab]

The window lasts for 1 hour 15 minutes still, so everything is still possible

[Beccab]

New t-0, which is now t-11 minutes

Launch!

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Beccab

[Beccab]

Uh oh

[tater]

Lock the doors.

[Scotius]

Uh-oh indeed. Apparently upper stage failed just short of achieving orbital speed. RIP payload .

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Scotius

[Minmus Taster]

They can't keep going on losing payloads like this, they need to to more test flights!

[Nightside]

On 6/12/2022 at 9:17 AM, Scotius said:

Still on hold. Doesn't bode well.

 

And recycled. Better luck next time.

 

Should have kept holding

[StrandedonEarth]

Burn, baby, burn....

[tater]

"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).

[Beccab]

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

[tater]

Mobile launch for smallsats is a good idea, it gives inclination flexibility, the question is who needs smallsats in bespoke orbits at this point?

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

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

Burn, baby, burn....

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)

[insert_name]

On 6/14/2022 at 4:55 AM, StrandedonEarth said:

Burn, baby, burn....

Is this real or did someone edit the HTML on their site?

[GuessingEveryDay]

1 hour ago, insert_name said:

Is this real or did someone edit the HTML on their site?

Checking out the website, looks like it's a very good edit.

[RCgothic]

Excessive fuel consumption by upper stage engine apparently. Currently not stated why, but they've been able to recreate this in ground testing.

 

 

[tater]

 

[Minmus Taster]

On 10/7/2022 at 5:19 PM, tater said:

 

That doesn't sound good

[Beccab]

Definitely the first good news for Astra in a while

[sevenperforce]

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.

[AckSed]

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?