The Astra rocket explodes in prelaunch testing footage from 2020.

Video that TechCrunch was able to collect depicts the disastrous conclusion that Astra's Rocket 3.0 experienced in March 2020 during prelaunch testing.

Travon Stracke

April 02, 2024

2Min Reads

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Wealth

At the time, the explosion at Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex was only described as a "anomaly," an industry word for pretty much any problem that doesn't go as planned.

At the time, Mark Lester, the CEO of Alaska Aerospace, said to local reporters, "I can confirm we had an anomaly on the launch pad." “We are executing our emergency checklist. We ask that everyone avoid the area so that our personnel can handle the matter.

The rocket "suffered an anomaly following an otherwise successful day of testing in Kodiak in preparation for a launch this week," Astra CEO Chris Kemp said to TechCrunch at the time. The gear for the business "was the only thing harmed," he continued. In reality, there was no longer a rocket to launch, but he informed a different magazine that the business would not be trying to launch after that week and that it would "wait until conditions with coronavirus improve before making another attempt."

The tiny launcher catches fire in the video clip. It is obvious that the car did not make it. This would have been Astra's third attempt at an orbital launch.

Astra was ok with such setbacks at the moment. The corporation was certain that it could produce rockets at such a high volume and cheap cost that some failure could be factored in when it came out of stealth earlier that year. The idea was not to be 100% reliable. Kemp said it like way in a May 2022 interview: "I believe that many people have the expectation that every launch must be flawless," he remarked. "I really believe that Astra needs to launch so many times that people will stop thinking about it."

In November 2021, Astra successfully entered orbit for the first time, and again in March 2022.

One of the greatest success stories for investors in the space sector, Astra went public in July 2021 at a valuation of $2.1 billion, having raised around $500 million for its incredibly low-cost launch ambitions. However, those plans fell through, and following months of capital burn, the board of Astra discreetly agreed to a take-private transaction with Kemp and CTO Adam London, at a mere $0.50 per share. Astra will stop trading on the Nasdaq once the transaction closes, which is anticipated to happen this quarter.

A request for comment about the 2020 launch failure was not answered by Astra.