{"id":12576,"date":"2020-03-24T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T14:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/astra-suffers-anomaly-during-pre-launch-test-in-alaska\/"},"modified":"2020-03-24T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T14:37:07","slug":"astra-suffers-anomaly-during-pre-launch-test-in-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/astra-suffers-anomaly-during-pre-launch-test-in-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Astra suffers \u201canomaly\u201d during pre-launch test in Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
File photo of Astra\u2019s first orbital-class small satellite launcher during pre-flight testing last month at the Pacific Spaceport Complex at Kodiak Island, Alaska. Credit: DARPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A small satellite launcher built by Astra \u201cexperienced an anomaly\u201d Monday on a launch pad at Kodiak Island, Alaska, forcing the cancellation of a planned orbital launch attempt this week, according to the company\u2019s co-founder and CEO.<\/p>\n

The incident at the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island occurred during a pre-launch countdown dress rehearsal, and was first reported by KMXT, a local public radio station.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm that the vehicle experienced an anomaly after an otherwise very successful day of testing in preparation for the launch,\u201d said Chris Kemp, Astra\u2019s co-founder and CEO, in an emailed statement late Monday.<\/p>\n

Officials from Astra and the Pacific Spaceport Complex, which is run by the Alaska Aerospace Corp., said no one was injured during the mishap. Astra\u2019s rocket was damaged, although the extent of the damage was unclear.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, our hardware was the only thing harmed, and the team is already working hard to understand the root cause so we can improve the design,\u201d Kemp said.<\/p>\n

Astra was planning a launch attempt was soon as Tuesday to place a small payload into low Earth orbit. Astra\u2019s first orbital launcher, named Rocket 3 or Rocket 3.0, is designed to carry up to 55 pounds (25 kilograms) of payload into a sun-synchronous polar orbit.<\/p>\n

Those plans were canceled after Monday\u2019s anomaly, Kemp said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we will not be attempting a launch this week,\u201d he said. \u201cWe intend to wait until conditions with coronavirus improve before making another attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm we had an anomaly on the launch pad,\u201d said Mark Lester, CEO of Alaska Aerospace Corp., an agency of the state of Alaska. \u201cWe are executing our emergency checklist. We request everyone stay clear of the area to allow our crew to address the situation,\u201d he told KMXT.<\/p>\n

Astra\u2019s rocket was originally supposed to launch in February as part of a prize competition managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, a U.S. military research and development office.<\/p>\n

DARPA\u2019s Launch Challenge offered up to $12 million prize money to a company that demonstrated its ability to launch a small payload to low Earth orbit on short notice, then perform the same feat from a different launch pad less than a month later.<\/p>\n

The deadline for the first of two Astra missions under DARPA\u2019s Launch Challenge was March 2. After several weather delays and other schedule slips in previous days, Astra scrubbed a launch attempt March 2 due to suspect data detected from the rocket\u2019s guidance, navigation and control system.<\/p>\n

Three CubeSats for the U.S. Department of Defense and the University of South Florida, along with a space-based beacon designed to aid in space traffic management, were slated to ride Astra\u2019s rocket into orbit through DARPA\u2019s Launch Challenge.<\/p>\n

On March 2, DARPA and Astra officials said the Prometheus CubeSat, the University of South Florida\u2019s two Articulated Reconnaissance and Communications Expedition, or ARCE, nano satellites, and the space-based radio beacon payload were to be removed from the rocket after the end of the Launch Challenge.<\/p>\n

Jared Adams, a DARPA spokesperson, said those payloads were safely removed from the rocket before Monday\u2019s anomaly.<\/p>\n

Kemp confirmed no payloads were on-board Astra\u2019s rocket at the time of the incident Monday.<\/p>\n

Astra says its rockets can launch with a small crew, requiring just days to set up a portable launch pad. The rocket itself, which measures 38 feet (11.6 meters) long, can fit into a standard shipping container and be towed by truck.<\/p>\n

The rocket is powered by five kerosene-fueled on its first stage, and a single kerosene-fed engine on its second stage.<\/p>\n

Astra designated the rocket \u201c1 of 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was our first test launch of Rocket 3, and we called it 1 of 3 because we believed that it would probably take three launches before we could successfully deliver a satellite into Earth orbit, so we knew that this was a long shot going into it, but understood how strategically important responsive launch was to the government,\u201d Kemp said in a March 2 teleconference with reporters.<\/p>\n

Headquartered in Alameda, California, Astra was established in 2016 and operated in stealth mode until early February, when Bloomberg published an exclusive story about the company\u2019s progress and plans.<\/p>\n

Astra is one of many companies vying for a place in the commercial small satellite launch market. It\u2019s just the second company of the group to get an orbital-class rocket to a launch pad, following Rocket Lab\u2019s debut in 2018.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

File photo of Astra\u2019s first orbital-class small satellite launcher during pre-flight testing last month at the Pacific Spaceport Complex at Kodiak Island, Alaska. Credit: DARPA A small satellite launcher built by Astra \u201cexperienced an anomaly\u201d Monday on a launch pad at Kodiak Island, Alaska, forcing the cancellation of a planned orbital launch attempt this week, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1623,1941,2285,291,2010,1504,1958,25],"class_list":["post-12576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska","tag-astra","tag-astra-rocket-3-0","tag-commercial-space","tag-coronavirus","tag-darpa","tag-kodiak-island","tag-launch"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}