(Screenshot / YouTube)
Astra, the aerospace company, unsuccessfully launched a light rocket with five student cubesats.
After turning off the engine of the first stage, the head fairing did not have time to open and the second stage crashed into it, and then, when it did open, it spun.
Astra is one of the developers of light rockets for launching small satellites into low Earth orbit.
The rocket, called Rocket 3, has a classic two-stage design with kerosene liquid engines and is capable of launching a payload of up to 150 kilograms into an orbit up to 500 kilometers high.
The main difference from other light missiles is that it fits in a standard 40-foot cargo container.
Similarly, the company brings mobile ground infrastructure to the launch site.
Because of this, Astra claims that all it needs to launch is a concrete pad, electricity, and permission to launch from the authorities.
The company has already had five attempts to launch a rocket into orbit, and only one of them (at the end of 2021) was successful.
It is noteworthy that each of the accidents happened for different reasons.
In September 2020, shortly after launch, the trajectory planning and holding system failed, so the engines were remotely disabled.
In December of the same year, the rocket crossed the Karman line for the first time and reached an altitude of 390 kilometers.
However, due to incorrect selection of the fuel mixture, it gained speed 0.5 kilometers per second less than necessary to enter orbit.
In August 2021, one of the five engines turned off at the rocket right at the start. Despite this, it continued to fly sideways and even climbed several tens of kilometers.
During the new launch, Astra for the first time launched a rocket not from Alaska, but from the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
The rocket was supposed to launch five cubesats developed by students under the ELaNa program.
Initially, the flight proceeded normally: the first stage correctly completed the entire program and turned off the engines in a timely manner.
After this stage, according to the plan, this rocket first separates the nose fairing, then the second stage is pushed forward, and after a few seconds it starts its engines.
However, on the broadcast, we could see that the fairing did not open and the second stage crashed into it.
A few seconds later, the second stage engine started and it knocked out the fairing flaps, and then immediately spun.
Half a minute after the incident, the company stopped broadcasting video from the rocket.
Then they announced on Twitter that as a result of the flight there was a problem due to which the satellites would not be launched into orbit.
Sources:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NASASpaceflight/status/1491865669947871234?s=20&t=N_BEdi20LmVSRFYBHSlB3A
YouTube: