Tag: Astra
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Rocket Report: The pitfalls of rideshare; China launches next Tiangong crew
Welcome to Edition 7.41 of the Rocket Report! NASA and its contractors at Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue building a new mobile launch tower for the Space Launch System Block 1B rocket, a taller, upgraded version of the SLS rocket being used for the agency’s initial Artemis lunar missions. Workers stacked another segment of…
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Rocket Report: The pitfalls of rideshare; China launches next Tiangong crew
Welcome to Edition 7.41 of the Rocket Report! NASA and its contractors at Kennedy Space Center in Florida continue building a new mobile launch tower for the Space Launch System Block 1B rocket, a taller, upgraded version of the SLS rocket being used for the agency’s initial Artemis lunar missions. Workers stacked another segment of…
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If you thought Astra was going to go away quietly, you were wrong
On Wednesday morning, a surprising email popped into my inbox with the following subject line: “Astra announces Department of Defense contract valued up to $44 Million.” I had to read it a second time to make sure I got it right. Astra, the launch company? Astra, whose valuation went from $2.6 billion to $25 million…
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Rocket Report: Sneak peek at the business end of New Glenn; France to fly FROG
Welcome to Edition 7.17 of the Rocket Report! Next week marks 10 years since one of the more spectacular launch failures of this century. On October 28, 2014, an Antares rocket, then operated by Orbital Sciences, suffered an engine failure six seconds after liftoff from Virginia and crashed back onto the pad in a fiery…
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Rocket Report: Firefly’s CEO steps down; Artemis II core stage leaves factory
Welcome to Edition 7.03 of the Rocket Report! One week ago, SpaceX suffered a rare failure of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket. In fact, it was the first time the latest version of the Falcon 9, known as the Block 5, has ever failed on its prime mission after nearly 300 launches. The world’s launch…
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After Astra loses 99 percent of its value, founders take rocket firm private
Astra’s long, strange trip in the space business is taking another turn. The company announced Thursday that it is going private at an extremely low valuation. Four years ago, the rocket company, based in Alameda, California, emerged from stealth with grand plans to develop a no-frills rocket that could launch frequently. “The theme that really…
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We’ll know soon if Astra—the commercial space company—has a future
Over the last two years, Astra has become one of just a handful of the dozens of startup launch companies to actually put something into orbit. This is a measure of the technical acumen of Astra engineers, who set out to execute on the vision of the company’s co-founders, Chris Kemp and Adam London. During…
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Rocket Report: Tough times for Astra and Virgin; SpaceX upgrading launch pad
Welcome to Edition 6.19 of the Rocket Report! While we wait for SpaceX to launch the second full-scale test flight of Starship, a lot of the news this week involved companies with much smaller rockets. Astra is struggling to find enough funding to remain in business, and Virgin Galactic says it will fly its suborbital…
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Rocket Report: European rockets finally fly; Artemis II core stage issues
Welcome to Edition 6.15 of the Rocket Report! We’re now more than three-quarters of the way through the year, and as of Thursday, there have been 156 orbital launches since January 1. Last year, which set a record for global launch activity, we didn’t reach 156 orbital launches until mid-November. At the cadence set so…
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Rocket Report: DOJ sues SpaceX; a look inside doomed Spaceport Camden
Welcome to Edition 6.08 of the Rocket Report! The US Department of Justice is taking SpaceX to court over allegations of hiring discrimination, but the government is relying more than ever on SpaceX’s technical prowess. Once again, Elon Musk’s social media posts are part of the story. This week, we also cover the successes and…