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WASHINGTON – Rocket firm Astra Space’s mission to send tiny satellites into orbit for storm monitoring failed Sunday after a second-stage booster engine shut down. space.
The crash occurred about 10 minutes after a successful launch of the Astra 3.3 rocket at 13:43 ET (1743 GMT) from a launch pad at the Cape Canaveral space force station in Florida. .
“We had a nominal first-stage flight. However, the upper stage engine shut down prematurely and we did not deliver our payloads into orbit,” said the live commentator on Astra, Amanda Durk Frye.
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The rocket carried two small satellites designed by the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to measure humidity and precipitation in tropical storm systems. They should be the first batch of a six-satellite constellation managed by NASA, the rest of which Astra also plans to launch in the future.
The failure of Sunday’s mission was Astra’s second this year, as the newcomer tries to launch his launch business with the Rocket 3.3, a two-stage dispensable vehicle capable of lifting 330 pounds ( 150 kg) of satellites in low Earth orbit.
Of Astra’s seven attempts to reach orbit, which included test missions with no payloads that generated revenue, two have been successful: the first in November last year and the second in March.
NASA is partnering with growing rocket companies to launch low-cost science payloads as a way to drive the growth of the rocket industry.
“Although today’s launch with @Astra did not go as planned, the mission provided a great opportunity for new launch and science capabilities,” wrote Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s scientific unit. oversaw the mission, on Twitter.
“While we are disappointed right now, we know: there is value in taking risks in our overall NASA science portfolio because innovation is needed to lead.” (Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)