Astra's Rocket 3.1 rises into the sky above Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex during the company's first orbital launch attempt on Sept. 11, 2020. The flight ended during the first-stage engine burn.
Posted on 09/12/2020 10:11:29 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The California-based spaceflight startup launched its first orbital test flight tonight (Sept. 11), sending its two-stage Rocket 3.1 skyward from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska at 11:20 p.m. EDT (7:20 p.m. local Alaska time and 0320 GMT on Sept. 12).
The 38-foot-tall (12 meters) booster, which was carrying no payloads, didn't make it all the way to the final frontier.
The failure was no shock; debut flights rarely go swimmingly, and Astra had explicitly said it was not expecting perfection on this one. In a prelaunch mission description, company representatives wrote that the primary objective was to achieve a nominal first-stage burn, which would keep Astra on track to reach orbit within three flights.
That didn't happen, but it appears the company will still have a fair bit of data to analyze ahead of the next attempt. And Astra still aims to get to orbit in three tries or fewer.
Astra's Rocket 3.1 rises into the sky above Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex during the company's first orbital launch attempt on Sept. 11, 2020. The flight ended during the first-stage engine burn.
(Image: © Astra/John Kraus)
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
60 years after Gemini etc. they don’t expect it to do what they want it to do?
Rocket science sounds pretty damn scary.
Actually their third or fourth try, I’ve lost track...
Least they got it off the ground this time
There sure isn't much there for a "complex."
Check out the shadows in this satellite photo. All the buildings and trees clearly show the sun is due south at midday (or maybe a slight bit west of due south):
Now look at the large, triangular shadow apparently on the launch pad:
The shadow indicates the sun is east of due south. The shadow is inconsistent with other shadows nearby.
And what's with the weird shadow shape? How many objects sit on a small point and get larger as they go up? Plus, the shadow has a weird triangular shape at the bottom, but an odd shape at the top. It isn't the shadow of a rocket or a launch structure.
Why can't we see the object that is casting the weird shadow? How can an invisible object cast a shadow?
Is this Area 52? What's going on here?
From the extremely classified missions it has had, I’m sure what you are seeing is an edited image - edited by the sat company that took the pic - likely at the request of our gov - that is, if there is no overlooked simpler explanation.
Looks like someone blacked out portion of image.
That’s what I was thinking, too.
Caribou and polar bears outraged...
They have now passed the performance of early USA rockets like Vanguard, which got 4 feet off the pad.
Congratulations!
That looks like the shadow of the launch tower to me.
The launch tower rests on a pinpoint and is fat at the top?
*ping*
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