Rocket startup Astra has finally reached orbit using its Rocket 3, in its 4th attempt. “The team worked hard for this,” Astra CEO Chris Kemp wrote on Twitter. “We’re just getting started, folks.”
The mission named LV0007 took off from the company’s site Kodiak, Alaska at 1:16 am ET on November 20. For this mission, the rocket wasn’t carrying any real payload but instead carried a dummy payload for the US Space Force. It reached orbit successfully, marking the first time that the company has achieved this feat.
Kemp’s tweet confirmed that the orbit has reached the orbit “at our targeted 86.0-degree inclination at an altitude of 500km [310 miles].”
Long history of failures
It has been a long road for the company to achieve this feat, with three previous launches failing to reach orbit. Most recently, the company launched the Rocket 3, but the rocket lifted off the launch pad and drifted at an angle before taking off upward.
The rocket made it into the air but the mission had to be aborted just minutes later into the flight as it had drifted off its planned trajectory. The problem was believed to occur due to a problem with the Delphin engines, five of which power the spacecraft.
Astra roping in other companies
After the successful launch, Astra has joined a small number of private companies which have are capable of launching to orbit. Following the launch, the first stage Delphin engines fired for around three minutes, carrying the rocket upward before it separated its second stage.
As well as the five Delphin engines which lift the rocket, the Rocket 3 also has a single second stage Aether engine which is designed to perform in a vacuum and which fired after separation. Once the engine completed its burn, the craft entered orbit and ran a simulation of how it will deploy the payload in future missions.
