Aerial view of the LV0009 rocket during the company’s live stream on March 15, 2022.
Astra / NASASpaceflight
Missile maker Astra returned to flight with a successful orbital mission on Tuesday, albeit with a slight hiccup. The company’s stock fluctuated wildly before and after the launch.
Astra’s LV0009 rocket, carrying three customer satellite payloads on a mission for launch services company Spaceflight, took off from Astra’s launch pad in Kodiak, Alaska.
After the rocket reached orbit, the company could not immediately confirm the successful deployment of the satellite, sending shares down as much as 9% before Astra CEO Chris Kemp finally announced a successful mission. , about an hour after the plane took off.
Kemp said on the company’s webcast: “The payloads have started communicating with the ground stations. Our customers are calling us and saying the satellites are alive – they’re talking, the thing. that means they have been successfully deployed.”
Astra stock traded on high volume post-mission, following a brief pause in trading, with the stock consistently bouncing above and below its previous close of $3.51 a share.
Astra’s LV0009 rocket takes off from Kodiak, Alaska on March 15, 2022.
Astra / NASASpaceflight
The company’s mission on Tuesday was its first attempt to return to flight since failed mid-launch of its LV0008 rocket on 10 February. Astra’s investigation into the LV0008 mission discovered an electrical problem that prevented the rocket’s payload from fully deploying, and a separate software problem that caused the rocket’s upper portion, the part responsible for launching satellites into orbit, fall down.
Ahead of Tuesday’s mission, Astra announced that it had taken corrective actions to both the missile’s control unit design as well as its software.
Astra’s vehicle is 43 feet tall and will be seen as a small rocket in the broader market. Astra’s goal is to launch as many small rockets as possible — a goal of reaching a speed of one rocket per day by 2025 — and reduce the price by another $2.5 million.
The company went public last year after completing the merger of SPAC, raising capital to produce its small rocketextend its facilities in Alameda, Californiaand develop the spacecraft and spaceport businesses.
Astra’s valuation has been falling over the past three months, with Stocks are battered along with other space growth stocks.
