{"id":17410,"date":"2022-03-16T01:18:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T17:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/astra-rocket-launches-satellites-from-alaska-giving-a-lift-to-seattle-based-spaceflight-inc\/"},"modified":"2022-03-16T01:18:49","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T17:18:49","slug":"astra-rocket-launches-satellites-from-alaska-giving-a-lift-to-seattle-based-spaceflight-inc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/astra-rocket-launches-satellites-from-alaska-giving-a-lift-to-seattle-based-spaceflight-inc\/","title":{"rendered":"Astra rocket launches satellites from Alaska, giving a lift to Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full-width\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/220315-astra-630x421.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-683368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/220315-astra-630x421.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/220315-astra-1260x841.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/220315-astra-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/220315-astra-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/220315-astra-2048x1367.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption>Astra\u2019s LV0009 launch vehicle rises from its Alaska launch pad. (Astra Photo \/ Brady Kenniston)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>California-based Astra sent a batch of satellites into orbit for Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc. from an Alaska launch pad today, a just a little more than a month after Astra\u2019s launch failure in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Astra\u2019s LV0009 launch vehicle lifted off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska\u2019s Kodiak Island at 9:22 a.m. PT, and about an hour later, Astra CEO Chris Kemp reported that the mission was a success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur customers are calling us and indicating that the satellites are alive, they\u2019re talking, which means that they\u2019ve been successfully deployed,\u201d he said during a webcast. \u201cThe flight was nominal. We were able to precisely deliver to the targeted orbit and inclination at orbital velocity. \u2026 It\u2019s been a long journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Astra went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange last July, thanks to a blank-check merger orchestrated by Seattle-area telecom pioneer Craig McCaw. The company\u2019s status as a publicly traded company led to some ups and downs today as investors waited for word about the mission\u2019s success or failure \u2014 and despite notching a success, Astra\u2019s share price ended the day slightly down, at $3.49.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Astra Launches Spaceflight Astra-1 Mission\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zYNXoC1qTLo?start=50&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Spaceflight Inc., which handles launch services for small satellites, helped with the integration of the Astra-1 mission\u2019s payloads.<\/p>\n<p>One of the payloads was OreSat0, a nanosatellite built from scratch by students at Portland State University in Oregon. The satellite is meant to test the technologies that will be used for OreSat, a NASA-supported mission to conduct climate science and foster STEM outreach. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more pleased to work with our Pacific Northwest neighbor Spaceflight to get OreSat0 launched,\u201d faculty adviser Andrew Greenberg said in a pre-launch interview.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana-based NearSpace Launch worked with Astra and Spaceflight to get its S4 Crossover spacecraft sent into orbit. S4 Crossover serves as the prototype for a self-powered payload hosting platform that can carry transmitters, sensors and other instruments. It\u2019s expected to undergo a few weeks of on-orbit testing before descending to its demise.<\/p>\n<p>No information was disclosed about the mission\u2019s third customer.<\/p>\n<p>The Astra-1 mission followed an unsuccessful mission that was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 10. Four NASA-supported nanosatellites were lost when something on the LV0008 rocket went awry during stage separation.<\/p>\n<p>The failure was traced to an electrical issue that affected fairing deployment, plus a software glitch that sent the upper stage tumbling in orbit. Those flaws were fixed in time for today\u2019s launch, the company said.<\/p>\n<p>Astra has big ambitions, including a plan to raise its launch rate to roughly one per day by 2025 and to deploy thousands of satellites for a telecom mega-constellation. Over the past year, it\u2019s had a mixed record: Last August, its LV0006 rocket failed to reach orbit after sliding sideways at liftoff. But in November, the LV0007 rocket successfully launched a test payload to orbit for the U.S. Space Force.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Update for 11:50 a.m. PT March 22:<\/strong> Space News\u2019 Jeff Foust reports that the third customer for the Astra launch was Swarm Technologies, a subsidiary of SpaceX, which arranged for the deployment of 16 tiny satellites designed to facilitate Internet of Things connectivity:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1506302865815523330&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2022%2Fastra-rocket-launches-satellites-from-alaska-giving-a-lift-to-seattle-based-spaceflight-inc%2F&amp;sessionId=03e1c4cc6fe42670556731005b7b8aba49d3aa00&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1506302865815523330\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782799880424722117=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Swarm\u2019s Sara Spangelo confirmed to me that her company was the unidentified customer on the Astra launch, with 16 satellites. https:\/\/t.co\/NESFs12k8T<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) March 22, 2022<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Astra\u2019s LV0009 launch vehicle rises from its Alaska launch pad. (Astra Photo \/ Brady Kenniston) California-based Astra sent a batch of satellites into orbit for Seattle-based Spaceflight Inc. from an Alaska launch pad today, a just a little more than a month after Astra\u2019s launch failure in Florida. Astra\u2019s LV0009 launch vehicle lifted off from [&hellip;]<\/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":[1623,1941,4642,2340],"class_list":["post-17410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alaska","tag-astra","tag-astra-space","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410"}],"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=17410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}