Two NASA satellites lost after latest Astra launch fails

TROPICS was intended to include a total of six satellites launched in three Astra Rocket 3.3 missions. In June 2021, the SpaceX Transporter-2 mission successfully launched a seventh satellite that served as a pathfinder.

Blue Canyon Technologies constructs the 3U CubeSats, which are operated for NASA by the Lincoln Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Each CubeSat costs around 25,000 Euros (roughly $11,000) to make. 

In order to investigate and monitor tropical storms and hurricanes, each satellite is equipped with a passive microwave spectrometer and a radiometer payload.

We had a nominal first stage flight. The upper stage shut down early and we did not deliver the payloads to orbit. We have shared our regrets with @NASA and the payload team. More information will be provided after we complete a full data review.

— Astra (@Astra) June 12, 2022

The satellite constellation was designed to be fully functional even if only four of the six satellites reach orbit or if only two of the three launches are successful. However, if all six satellites had been successfully launched into orbit, the mission's scientific data would have been enhanced through a higher revisit rate.

TROPICS-1 was Astra's sixth orbital launch attempt since Rocket 3.1's maiden flight in September 2020. In November 2021, Astra successfully placed the upper stage of the LV0007 vehicle, which was carrying a payload for the United States Space Force, into orbit from Kodiak, following a series of unsuccessful orbital test flights.

Why did the launch fail? 

The next launch, LV0008 in February 2022, marked Astra's first from Cape Canaveral's SLC-46 and the company's first for NASA. However, the ELaNa-41 mission failed to deploy multiple CubeSats into orbit due to a fairing separation failure. The following mission, LV0009 from Kodiak, was the first to successfully deploy payloads into orbit for Spaceflight Inc. in March 2022.

Transported by truck from Astra's headquarters and plant in Alameda, California, the LV0010 vehicle arrived at Cape Canaveral in May. In preparation for launch, a static fire test was conducted at SLC-46 on June 1 to test all five Delphin engines on the first stage and all ground support systems.

At T0, the Delphin engines re-ignited to propel the vehicle off the pad. Six seconds later, the rocket began tilting downrange to attain the necessary horizontal velocity for orbital insertion.

The vehicle then traversed the region of maximum dynamic pressure, or Max-Q, roughly 1 minute and 10 seconds after launch. The first stage then continued to propel the launch vehicle until T+3 minutes, when all five engines were shut down by the craft's Main Engine Cutoff (MECO).

Five seconds later, the protective covering (fairing) that shields the payloads and the upper stage during ascent suddenly split. Another five seconds later, the upper stage separated, and at T+ 3 minutes and 15 seconds, the upper stage's Aether engine fired to begin a scheduled five-minute burn.

Due to a technical difficulty with the upper stage, this burn was terminated prematurely, leaving the vehicle in a suborbital trajectory, culminating in the failure of the mission. The last four TROPICS satellites are scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral on the LV0011 and LV0012 Astra missions.