Foul weather delays Astras 1st DARPA Launch Challenge liftoff in Alaska – Space.com

Mother Nature has interfered again with a potentially prize-winning launch.

Spaceflight start-up Astra had aimed to release its first-ever orbital mission today (Feb. 29), from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska’s Kodiak Island. However bad weather condition– particularly, thick clouds and strong winds– has pushed the effort back a minimum of another day.

The liftoff is part of the$12 million

DARPA Launch Challenge, which looks for to stimulate the advancement of private American rockets that can carry small military satellites to orbit cheaply and on short turn-arounds. (DARPA is short for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.)

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The history of rockets

If Astra’s first flight, which is carrying four little payloads, prospers, the business will get $2 million. Acing a second launch in brief order, from a various pad at the Kodiak complex, will generate an extra $10 million.

The contest rules give Astra 14 days to release objective number one, as counted from the opening of a DARPA-declared window on Feb. 17. Today was day number 13, which indicates that tomorrow (March 1) could technically be Astra’s last opportunity to get off the ground.

DARPA might offer Astra a fair bit of additional time to compensate for the weather, which has not worked together much of the time. Just 4 of the 13 days to date have actually been “green” from a weather condition perspective, meaning ecological conditions provided no issues, Todd Master, the DARPA program manager for the competitors, stated during a webcast update today. The other days were either marginal or “red”– a trend that’s likely to continue tomorrow (March 1).

“Tomorrow’s appearing like a red day,” Master stated. “We’re going to get through today’s operation, see how that goes, and then evaluate from there.”

The operation he referred to was a part of the regular launch-day countdown work with Astra’s 38-foot-tall (11.6 meters) Rocket 3.0, which the mission group wants to perform to settle some kinks recognized throughout a “wet gown wedding rehearsal” the other day (Feb. 28).

The competitors guidelines call for Astra to get objective second up by March 18. That date also presumes no weather-delay payment.

The DARPA Launch Challenge was announced in 2018, and 18 companies at first revealed interest in contending, Master has actually said. Three advanced to become “full participants”– Astra, Virgin Orbit and Vector Launch. But Virgin Orbit and Vector Launch left, leaving California-based Astra as the sole competitor.

Astra was established in 2016 but remained in stealth mode until previously this month. The Bay Area business tried two suborbital test objectives in 2018 but has not yet released an orbital flight.

You can find out more about the DARPA Launch Challenge

at DARPA’s site for the project here.

Mike Wall is the author of “ Out There”( Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the look for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

If Astra’s first flight, which is bring 4 little payloads, is successful, the company will get $2 million. The contest rules offer Astra 14 days to release objective number one, as counted from the opening of a DARPA-declared window on Feb. 17. DARPA may give Astra a reasonable bit of extra time to compensate for the weather, which has actually not worked together much of the time. The competition guidelines call for Astra to get mission number 2 up by March 18. The DARPA Launch Challenge was revealed in 2018, and 18 business at first revealed interest in completing, Master has actually stated.

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