Astra Rocket Vertical for Launch Rehersal

Astra rocket “1 of 3” has been vertical position at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska. Today the team is going through “wet dress rehearsal” in which the liquid propellant will be added to the rocket, but not fired. See updates at http://darpalaunchchallenge.org

Astra Space is developing pump-fed, liquid bipropellant propulsion engines for DARPA and NASA. They have the DARPA goal of being able to launch and then relaunch with only few days in between.

The current vehicle, Rocket 3.0, is designed to have a payload capacity of approximately 100 kg to low earth orbit. The first Rocket 3.0 vehicle has completed a static fire test at Atwater. It is planned to launch from Alaska and reach orbit between 25 February 2020 and April 2020.

SOURCES- Astra Space, DARPA
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com