Astra's first rocket launch after it went public was not the success that the company had hoped for. The rocket hung sideways after the engine failed to fire, and then attempted to orbit. After a fragment of the rocket broke off, the flight safety crew deliberately halted the engines for 2 minutes and 28 second.
It had reached an altitude 31 miles before it returned to Earth.
Launch Vehicle 0006 (or LV0006), a two-stage launch vehicle, was originally scheduled for Friday, August 27, from Kodiak's Pacific Spaceport Complex. After an abort by the rockets guidance system, that launch was postponed to August 28. Space claims that the original abort was caused by an engine configuration problem.
It failed to place anything in orbit.
Chris Kemp, CEO of Astra, spoke optimistically to CNBC after the second attempt to launch. Although it wasn't successful in putting anything into orbit, it was a learning experience that Astra CEO Chris Kemp shared with CNBC.
Kemp tweeted that the engine did not fire, but he was extremely proud of Astra's performance during launch.
Looking at flight data and video shows that two things are clear. 1) The engine was shut down immediately after launch. 2) Everything that followed made me extremely proud of my team. Space is not easy, but we will persevere, just like this rocket. #AdAstra pic.twitter.com/2g3n812EaW Chris Kemp (@Kemp) August 29, 2021
The entire launch can be viewed here
