Astra rocket fails after liftoff from Alaska



Astra Space's Rocket 3.3 stands ready Friday for its launch from Alaska. Photo courtesy of Astra Space

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- California-based Astra Space, a small, relatively new rocket company, failed in flight Saturday after a launch from Alaska supported in part by the U.S. Space Force.

The rocket "suffered an anomaly" about 2 1/2 minutes after liftoff from Kodiak shortly after 6:30 p.m. EDT, the company said, not elaborating on what happened.

The failure followed an aborted attempt the day before, which the company did not explain. That launch was called off just seconds before the planned liftoff.

Astra Space had not released details about the payload Saturday, except to say that it contain sensors to monitor conditions during launch for future Space Force missions

Company officials said they expected to learn a great deal from the telemetry data before the 38-foot rocket experienced "technical difficulties."

A top executive at Astra Space, which is publicly traded, acknowledged during an Aug. 12 teleconference the risks involved in producing an experimental rocket.

"Maximizing our learning requires us to make advances and take appropriate technical risks," Astra founder and CEO Chris Kemp said during the call. Kemp is a former NASA chief technology officer.