Tonight, at 7:44 pm, Astra launched the TROPICS-1 mission, the first of NASA's TROPICS program.
After the separation of the fairings the second stage separated from the first and subsequently turned on its Aether engine.
This very engine then shut down about a minute earlier than expected. This resulted in the loss of the mission and the two satellites on board.
This is the second failure of the second stage of Rocket 3 in 2022, following the failure of the ELANA 41 mission last February.
Astra teams will, in the coming weeks, analyze the data received from the vehicle to uncover, and fix, the problem that caused today's failure.
More information as it becomes available.
However, the TROPICS constellation will achieve its scientific goals with the four remaining CubeSats spread over two different orbits. TROPICS will provide the best weather observations of tropical cyclones to traditional observation methods even with two fewer satellites.
The images within this article are owned by NASASpaceflight LLC and Astra Space Inc.
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