On September 12 at 3:19 UTC, Astra launched their Rocket 3.1 for the very first time for their very first orbital flight attempt from Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska.

Astra had defined success for this flight as “achieving a nominal first stage burn,” which would have covered the time from liftoff to the separation of the first stage and second stages. Unfortunately, it was not to be. 

In a follow-up blog post after the launch, Astra said that there was a problem early in the flight where the “guidance system appears to have introduced some slight oscillation into the flight, causing the vehicle to drift from its planned trajectory leading to a commanded shutdown of the engines by the flight safety system.” 

Stephen Clark of SpaceFlightNow reported from a virtual press briefing with Astra officials that the guidance system issue “will likely be fixable with a software update.” Rocket 3.2 is slated to launch sometime before the end of the year.

More Information

SpaceFlight Now article