Astra simply bought some assist in getting its new rocket off the bottom.
The California-based firm introduced right now (Oct. 23) that it has signed a contract with the Protection Innovation Unit (DIU), a U.S. army group that focuses on adopting and adapting industrial applied sciences.
The deal, value as much as $44 million, “helps advancing and scaling the manufacturing capabilities of Astra’s distinctive tactically responsive launch system, to attain the prototype goal of launching Rocket 4 to orbit or suborbit and from the U.S., Australia, or different areas,” Astra wrote in an announcement right now.
Rocket 4 is Astra’s deliberate next-gen launch system. It is larger and extra highly effective than Rocket 3, which the corporate retired in 2022 after it skilled a reported 5 failures out of seven orbital launch makes an attempt.
A kind of failures was the ultimate Rocket 3 flight, a June 2022 liftoff that didn’t ship its payload — two hurricane-tracking NASA cubesats — to the right orbit.
Video: Watch Astra’s LV0010 rocket launch failure with NASA satellites
These troubles pressured some shakeups at Astra. For instance, the corporate had been publicly traded since 2021, however its two co-founders, Chris Kemp and Adam London, took it personal earlier this 12 months to keep away from declaring chapter.
Kemp, who additionally serves as Astra’s CEO, alluded to such travails within the firm’s assertion right now.
“This award is a testomony not solely to our group’s perseverance this previous 12 months, but additionally a validation of our imaginative and prescient for tactically responsive area,” he stated. “We’re proud to have so many companions who perceive and assist the significance of point-to-point area supply for nationwide safety and protection functions.”
Astra’s two-stage Rocket 4 will stand 62 ft (18.9 meters) tall and be able to hauling 1,320 kilos (600 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit, in accordance with the corporate’s spec web page. Astra goals to launch the rocket on a roughly weekly cadence as soon as it is up and operating.
