California-based Astra Space, a small, relatively new rocket company, failed in flight Saturday after a launch from Alaska supported in part by the U.S. Space Force.

The rocket "suffered an anomaly" about 2 1/2 minutes after liftoff from Kodiak shortly after 6:30 p.m. EDT, the company said, not elaborating on what happened.

The failure followed an aborted attempt the day before, which the company did not explain. That launch was called off just seconds before the planned liftoff.

Astra Space had not released details about the payload Saturday, except to say that it contain sensors to monitor conditions during launch for future Space Force missions.

Company officials said they expected to learn a great deal from the telemetry data before the 38-foot rocket experienced "technical difficulties."

A top executive at Astra Space, which is publicly traded, acknowledged during an Aug. 12 teleconference the risks involved in producing an experimental rocket.

"Maximizing our learning requires us to make advances and take appropriate technical risks," Astra founder and CEO Chris Kemp said during the call. Kemp is a former NASA chief technology officer.

Related Links
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Unveiling vehicles and technologies for future space transportation
Paris (ESA) Aug 26, 2021
ESA safeguards Europe's guaranteed access to space through its Future Launchers Preparatory Programme, FLPP. FLPP oversees system studies and research activities to foster new and disruptive technologies which have the potential to reduce cost, improve performance, improve reliability, or on their ability to fulfil the specific needs of an identified service, system, demonstrator or mission. Within FLPP, demonstrators and studies hone emerging technologies to give Europe's space transportati ... read more