Astra Rocket

History

Ventions, Astra's predecessor, developed an air-launched orbital system for the SALVO program and created the Delphin electric-pump-fed engine in 2012. In 2016, Ventions was re-incorporated as Astra under Chris Kemp, and began developing a simple, inexpensive rocket designed for daily launches from shipping containers.

Astra used SALVO designs and hardware to speed development, and received NASA funding in 2017 under the Ventions name. Rocket 3.3 reached orbit for the first time in November 2021, after nine years of development. In August 2022, citing poor reliability, Astra ended Rocket 3 operations and shifted to developing Rocket 4.

Variants

SALVO (Small Affordable Launch Vehicle to Orbit, later Small Air Launch Vehicle to Orbit) was a two-stage rocket with two electric-pump-fed engines in its first stage, requiring only a pilot and weapon system officer in an F-15 carrier aircraft. Rocket 1 was a test vehicle using unflown SALVO hardware and five Delphin engines, with a mass simulator replacing the second stage; its launch on 20 July 2018 failed. Rocket 2 was a similar prototype; its launch on 29 November 2018 also failed. Rocket 3 was an 11.6 m vehicle with a payload capacity of 25 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit, using five Delphin engines on the first stage and one pressure-fed Aether engine on the second stage.

Proposed variants

Rocket 4 was planned as a much larger vehicle, carrying up to 600 kg to orbit or 350 kg to Sun-synchronous orbit. Firefly would supply up to 50 Chirons. In September 2020, Astra proposed Rocket 5.0 under the AFWERX program, a suborbital point-to-point variant with a modified second stage between the Rocket 3's first and upper stages.

Launch failures

Of nine Astra rocket launches, seven were failures, and one rocket was destroyed during pre-launch preparations. On 20 July 2018, Rocket 1 launched from Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) Launch Pad 2; after about 27 seconds it began falling and exploded upon hitting the pad, with the failure confirmed by the FAA the next day. Rocket 2 launched from the same pad on 30 November 2018; after roughly 30 seconds its Delphin engines failed, causing the rocket to crash, reaching about 100 m higher than Rocket 1.

On 23 March 2020, Rocket 3.0 exploded during testing when a plastic valve controlling helium flow became stuck open due to cold from cryogenic oxygen, causing a tank rupture that destroyed the rocket and launch infrastructure. On 12 September 2020, Rocket 3.1 launched from PSCA; after about 15 seconds it developed roll oscillation and was terminated roughly 30 seconds after liftoff. On 15 December 2020, Rocket 3.2 reached 390 km altitude but failed to orbit due to upper stage fuel mixture issues; Astra declared the flight a success because the first stage main engine cutoff was achieved.