Astra Space, Inc. on Friday, November 19th successfully completed its first commercial orbital launch for the United States Space Force late that night. The Astra Rocket LV0007 lifted off from Astra’s Kodiak Spaceport, located at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak.
Astra’s launch system successfully demonstrated the orbital placement of a test payload to an inclination of 86.0 degrees at an altitude of 500 km. The company states on their Reddit account that the payload is a non-deployable suite of sensors that will validate the vehicle’s performance for the U.S. Space Force. The payload achieved an orbital velocity of 7.61 kilometers per second in 8 minutes and 47 seconds. The United States Space Force contracted the launch through a Defense Innovation Unit Other Transaction Agreement.
Chris Kemp, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Astra:
“Reaching orbit is a historic milestone for Astra. We can now focus on delivering for our customers and scaling up rocket production and launch cadence.”
PHOTO: “LV0007 BACK 3457”, by Brady Kenniston, Astra, www.astra.com
According to the press release, Astra was founded in 2016 to launch a new generation of space services enabled by large constellations of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit. The team aimed to design a rocket that could be mass produced, and a launch system that could deliver payloads into orbit from spaceports everywhere.
Adam London, Co-Founder and CTO of Astra:
“We owe this success to our incredible team and the culture we’ve built at Astra. I’m humbled by their courage and commitment to keep building, launching, learning, and iterating until we succeeded.”
In October 2019, Astra completed construction of their first dedicated Astra Spaceport at the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, activating the launch site in March 2020.
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