Rocket Report: SpaceX broomstick cleaning up contracts, Astra back on track
Enlarge / Astra's LV0009 takes off from Kodiak Island, Alaska, on March 15. (credit: Brady Kenniston/Astra)
Welcome to Edition 4.36 of the Rocket Report! As I took last week off for Spring Break, there is quite a bit of news to get to this week, including positive steps forward for some US small launch companies and SpaceX reaching another milestone with its Falcon 9 rocket.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below. (The form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site.) Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Astra successfully returns to flight. Astra launched its Rocket 3.3 vehicle on March 15 and placed several payloads into low Earth orbit, SpaceNews reports. The Rocket 3.3 vehicle, designated LV0009 by Astra, took flight from Pacific Spaceport Complex on Kodiak Island and delivered payloads for Spaceflight Inc. to a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 525 kilometers. This success followed a launch failure on February 10 of the Rocket 3.3 vehicle. That failure was caused by a wiring system error in the payload fairing.