In February, the company’s CEO expressed regret for accidentally destroying four small NASA satellites after another botched orbital launch.
NASA has lost two satellites designed to track hurricanes due to a malfunctioning rocket.
A Livestream broadcast showed the Astra launch vehicle safely take off from Cape Canaveral in Florida before suffering a second-stage failure hundreds of kilometers into the sky. The cause has not yet been determined.
The private aerospace company Astra has lost NASA satellites for the second time.
In February, the company’s chief executive expressed “deep regret” for the inadvertent destruction of four small NASA satellites after a failed launch.
A month after its February mishap, Astra successfully reached orbit during a second launch.
The two CubeSats aboard the launch on Sunday, which constituted a third of a $30 million mission to monitor hazardous weather on Earth, were both destroyed.
Astra’s senior manager, Amanda Dark Frye, stated, “We had a normal first-stage launch; however, the upper-stage engine shut down prematurely and we did not carry our payloads to orbit.”
The satellites were part of the NASA TROPICS mission, which stands for Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats.
NASA said in a statement, “While we are saddened by the loss of the two TROPICS CubeSats, the mission is part of NASA’s Earth Venture program, which offers chances for lower-cost, higher-risk missions.
“Despite losing the first two of six satellites, the TROPICS constellation will nonetheless achieve its scientific goals with the remaining four CubeSats in two orbits,”
The US space agency noted, “With four satellites, TROPICS will still give better time-resolved observations of tropical cyclones than traditional observational methods.
How do CubeSats work?
The company stated that CubeSats are playing an increasingly important role in NASA’s exploration, technology demonstrations, scientific research, and educational initiatives.
During the epidemic, when access to NASA’s facilities was restricted, the space agency’s staff operated the Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter CubeSat from their homes.
NASA refers to TROPICS as an “Earth venture mission,” which is a “science-driven, competitively selected, low-cost mission” that allowed the space agency to invest in novel Earth science.
Instead of TROPICS, the failed launch in February was carrying four small satellites as part of NASA’s ELaNa 41 (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) program.
NASA characterizes ELaNa as “an innovative program… to attract and retain students in the science, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.”
NASA reports that the goal is to develop satellites comprised of two, three, or six pieces, each weighing less than 1.33kg, with a cube size of 10 centimeters.
Three of the satellites that were lost were created by universities, while one was created by the Johnson Space Centre of NASA.
All CubeSats launched as part of the program are experimental, as opposed to commercial.
