On the second of March, Astra attempted to launch “One of Three” for the DARPA Launch Challenge.  This would have been the first orbital launch for Astra, but the count was stopped at T-minus fifty-three seconds due to unexpected signals being received from the rocket’s guidance, navigation and control system.  The launch was then held for the remainder of the three-hour window while technicians accessed the pad to ensure the rocket could maintain its launch-ready status and even replaced a “suspect ground transmitter” which would have been responsible for activating the flight termination system had the rocket gone off course or malfunctioned in flight.  However, they were unable to resolve the issue with the sensor before the launch window closed.

The DARPA Launch Challenge came into existence because the ability to launch at a moment’s notice has long been on the US military’s wish list.  Specifically, the challenge was for a commercial rocket company to launch two rockets with different payloads from different locations into different orbits with very little notice.

Here’s a statement from DARPA’s website that explains the challenge in more detail: “Today, space launch is a process that begins years in advance, and it relies on a limited number of launch ranges that have complex, expensive, and one-of-a-kind, fixed infrastructure. The DARPA Launch Challenge is stressing the time, technology, systems, and processes that currently constrain access to space. The Challenge aims to minimize launch infrastructure, improve responsiveness, and take advantage of advances in commercial launch cadence to demonstrate flexible launch capabilities in days rather than years, for our nation’s defense.”

For the challenge, Astra was kept in the dark as to its first payload until late January.  This was to ensure the company could make no major changes to its launcher to customize it for the payloads.  Remember, the goal was to have a successful flight would demonstrate a capability to launch any payload — not a specific payload.  Additionally, Astra didn’t find out about the intended launch site until two weeks prior to the initial launch in order to demonstrate the company’s flexibility of deployment.

The selected launch site was the Pacific Spaceport Complex located at Narrow Cape on Kodiak Island, Alaska.  Let’s face it: if you can launch from there, you can probably launch from anywhere. It’s remote, the temperatures in February and March hover around freezing, and there’s minimal launch infrastructure.  The spaceport literally does not have the capabilities to launch anything bigger than a “small-lift” rocket. Rockets arrive either on barge or by plane, which is route that Astra decided to go with.

Astra’s entire launch system fits into a single large shipping container which can be flown by aircraft wherever it needs to go. That container first arrived in Alaska on 18 February, a day into the scheduled 14-day launch window.  Because of a vicious winter storm that lasted more than a week, Astra requested and received an extension to the Challenge launch window. 

Had this launch been successful, DARPA would have awarded the company $2 million. Astra would then have had two weeks to prepare to launch another set of payloads from a different site. If both launches were successful, the company would have earned an additional $10 million.

So, what now?  No one won the challenge.  The payloads were taken off the rocket and returned to their owners.  While Astra claims they will continue to work towards demonstrating this capability, there is no word on when — or if — the scheduled payloads will be launched.

——————————————-

Prometheus nanosat – Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Department of Defense: The shoebox-sized Prometheus nanosatellite is one of a series which have launched on other missions in the past. Los Alamos said prior to the exercise that this would have helped demonstrate capabilities aimed at “reducing tasking and data dissemination timelines to provide military operators with tactically relevant information.”

ARCE-1 – University of South Florida – Two identical CubeSats would have communicated with one another continuously in an effort to demonstrate the capability of LEO satellites in a larger constellation to adapt & adjust their missions in a largely autonomous fashion. The idea was to demonstrate technologies which would, according to DARPA, “gracefully handle faulty and failed satellites, and operate with a minimum of oversight from Earth-based operators.”

 2nd Stage beacon – A miniature radio beacon is attached to the 2nd stage of the rocket, to assist in ground station tracking, and to improve current tracking and prediction of orbital objects. Essentially, this would provide something similar to the transponder beacon aboard airliners, which augments and assists ground radar tracking of aircraft. Among other things, this would allow ground-based technicians to correlate radar returns with beacon signals to refine orbital tracking data. This might be especially useful for objects which are tumbling, inconsistently colored, or have a lopsided center of mass. 

The 2nd stage was expected to be left in orbit, to eventually decay and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere along a similar timeline to the satellite payloads themselves, essential making the rocket body itself the largest of four mission payloads.

1of3 Arriving in Kodiak pic.twitter.com/J0g39VIdAg

— Astra (@Astra) February 24, 2020

• DARPA Launch Challenge: https://www.darpalaunchchallenge.org/
• Live launch coverage: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/29/astra-darpa-launch-challenge-one-mission-status-center/
• Initial article: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/24/fresh-out-of-stealth-mode-astra-gearing-up-for-orbital-launch-from-alaska/
• Frequently Asked Questions (Alaska Aerospace) https://akaerospace.com/about/frequently-asked-questions