DARPA Challenge Launch scrapped Monday due to faulty sensor, Astra hopes to try again in few weeks

An intermittent sensor reading halted the launch of an Astra rocket on Monday and ended the startup spaceflight company’s efforts to win a multi-million-dollar launch competition.

Astra officials said at a press conference after the launch was stopped that the sensor reading was serious enough to warrant scrapping the launch as a safety precaution.

The launch was part of a DARPA challenge to develop new systems for what’s called a responsive launch. In other words, being able to launch on short notice with little lead time, such as might be needed during a war, where tactical information and specific needs are available only on short notice.

DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. A part of the Department of Defense responsible for developing cutting edge technologies for use by the military, much of the agency’s work is highly classified.

Today’s halted launch was the second try in three days. The launch set for Saturday was cancelled due to bad weather, specifically high winds and heavy cloud cover, according to space.com.

 

 

Astra’s Chris Kemp said during the press conference that the firm plans to try the launch again. First, though they must figure out what the problem was that triggered the sensor, ‘root cause it’ as he said. Then fix the problem, and get a new launch license.

 

“And so that probably is not a day or two, it’s more like a week or two, but it’s certainly not a month or two. So I think the issue that we saw was very frustrating and it was definitely serious, but also sufficiently intermittent where we all stopped and said, we really need to understand why the sensor would be reading the value that it was reading before we proceed. So soon as we root cause it, it will fly again.”

 

The payload for this launch will be taken off the rocket and returned to the providers, according to Todd Master the DARPA project manager.

 

“So from our perspective, our intention is to de-integrated payloads from the launch vehicle and get those payloads back to the providers who were taking, you know, somewhat of a risk within with the rockets that they hadn’t flown on before. The other rest of the payload providers was they didn’t know at the time that they signed up, which of our participating competitors they would get, they didn’t get to choose. So those folks really, you know, kind of stuck their neck out in a big way. And we want to afford the possibility to give their payload back to take another chance to get to orbit.”

 

Master did not say how much the launch challenge cost, but did say the bulk of the money budgeted was for the prize, and none will be given out since there was no launch.

 

Note: This article was changed to correct Chris Kemp’s name.