Hello All,

Did you see this morning's latest launch by Astra? It came agonizingly close to succeeding (see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/06/...-live-coverage/ , and https://spaceflightnow.com/2022/06/...launch-failure/ ). I was also surprised to hear the announcers refer to its fuel as "RP-X" (every reference I've seen on the vehicle says it uses RP-1, burned with LOX). Also:

I can't help but wonder if their constant "iteration-tinkering" with its design--no two rounds are identical--is at least partly responsible for their so-far poor success record. (The old original Thor-Delta was mostly immune from failures--which were rare, after the first Delta A failed to orbit an Echo satelloon--by using all of the most reliable existing rocket and guidance system hardware, and the design was frozen, with Douglas [later McDonnell Douglas] only making uprated versions "one feature at a time," beginning by 'stretching' the Vanguard/Able second stage's tankage to create the Delta B.) Now:

Astra's vehicle, being a "clean-sheet" design, doesn't have earlier-existing rockets to draw the most reliable hardware from. But if they would freeze its design (at least for a significant spell), and make it reliable through multiple flights (and, as with the Delta, analyze what went *right* with each launch [some things just barely missed working wrong, and were subsequently beefed-up], and what didn't--this was the Delta development philosophy), Astra could make their Rocket 3.3 vehicle (it really needs a proper name! [I suggest "Shire," as "Percheron" has already been used for two rockets, see: https://www.google.com/search?q=Per...sclient=gws-wiz and https://books.google.com/books?id=P...0rocket&f=false ]) as reliable as the Delta, or even more so.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

It came within a minute of the 8 minute 2nd stage burn to obtain orbit before early engine shutdown.

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I love sanding.

*Nods* Yes--and even that need not have necessarily resulted in a "Failed to orbit," as such entries read (before the cause, if known, was included in the citation) in the old TRW Space Log issues. For example:

The first Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-1 (launched 04/08/1966, and still in orbit), was launched by the only Atlas SLV-3B-Agena D (whose oversized payload fairing made it virtually indistinguishable from an Atlas-Centaur). Very late in the Agena D's burn, it lost guidance control and began tumbling; luckily, the spinning was in the vertical plane of the vehicle's trajectory, so it didn't deviate to the left or right. By sheer luck, it achieved exactly the planned 400 nautical mile-high circular orbit at the planned inclination, despite its spinning. OAO-1 also tumbled, after separation from the Agena (due to the physics of rotating bodies). Also:

SpaceX makes use of this effect, deliberately slowly rotating the Starlink satellites-carrying Falcon 9 second stages in a plane tangent to the orbit (the spin axis points to the Earth's center), to ensure slow but steady separations--of the satellites from the second stage, and of the satellites from each other. Unfortunately, despite OAO-1's "lucky launch," its power supply failed, and it died of electricity starvation just a few hours later. (OAO-1 would make an interesting "rescue/upgrade" target for a Falcon 9/Dragon in-orbit servicing mission; its telescope door was never opened in orbit, so its multiple interior telescopes--and all of the other equipment inside--should be in "As New" condition.)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Blackshire your posts are looked for with eagerness and in the case with ASTRA launch vehicle I think you "knocked it out of the park"

Yes, very high rocketry content score: A+++++++++!

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

-and-

Thank you both--this will be a happier day for me, thanks to you! (Living alone, it's easy to stew in one's own thoughts, especially when reminders of one's mortality--such as James Eugene Seals' [of Seals & Crofts: https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...t s+full+album ] death last week--start occurring more frequently.) As my late friend Gary Moore said after such events, "All of our names just moved up a notch" (I prefer to think of it as being a little closer to getting my hooves back).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR