Space missions are
always fascinating to follow – but its latest entry was nothing short of
unfortunate!

A startup called Astra
had recently launched its first orbital mission but the Rocket 3.1 sadly failed
midway. It made a successful launch this past

Friday from the Pacific Spaceport
Complex in Alaska, however, the company reports that its guidance system experienced
“oscillation” right at the takeoff. Due to this issue, the rocket didn’t follow
the trajectory as it had planned.

Apparently,the safety
system collapsed midway, leading to a complete shut down from the engines. The
flight didn’t have any payloads. Someone had made the video of the rocket’s
ascent. It shows that the engine stops mid-flight and then flames burst in the
air. After this, the rocket hits the ground.

According to the
company, the aim of this flight was to have a nominal first stage urn –
unfortunately, that didn’t happen. However, after evaluating the preliminary
data, Astra’s rocket performed exceedingly well.

The company wrote on
its blog post:

“We
didn’t meet all of our objectives, but we did gain valuable experience, plus even
more valuable flight data. This launch sets us well on our way to reaching
orbit within two additional flights, so we’re happy with the result.”

Astra is a small team –
so small that it doesn’t even have a video production crew to broadcast its
launches! Apparently, the launch system was developed by six people, and that
too, in roughly six days. The company promises that it will come up with Rocket
3.2 and launch it in the next couple of months.