Space News reports that Astra Space Inc – a successor company to Ventions, the California pump-fed rocket engine developer – is reported to have had a failure of its second test rocket on 29 November 2018 flying on a south-southwesterly track out of the Kodiak Island launch site in Alaska. No details of the launch failure have been revealed except to note that it was a test flight of the first stage of a planned two stage orbit capable vehicle. A dummy upper stage was being carried. A previous flight of the rocket from the same launch site on 20 July also suffered a “mishap” according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The Kodiak Island launch site is run by the Alaska Aerospace Corp. Courtesy: Seradata
The original Ventions firm became well known for its work on DARPA Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) programme – a project to produce a rocket carried initially on the underside of an F-15E fighter jet. That failed after its mixed propellant/oxidiser concept was found to be unsafe.
