Astra’s failed launch resulted in the loss of two NASA weather satellites
by Emma Roth from The Verge - All Posts on (#609FC)
A rocket belonging to the up-and-coming Astra space company failed to deliver two of NASA's weather-tracking satellites to space after its second stage engine shut down prematurely. Both satellites were lost as a result of the failure.
Astra's Launch Vehicle 0010 (LV0010) successfully took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:43PM ET, but suffered an upper stage failure about 10 minutes into its flight. The launch was part of NASA's mission to send six TROPICS satellites into space - these small, foot-long CubeSats are supposed to help NASA keep better track of developing tropical storms. CubeSats are low-cost satellites frequently built by researchers at colleges and universities.
We had a nominal first stage...