Alaska launch shrouded in secrecy
by Jeff Foust July 27, 2018
WASHINGTON A secretive California company carried out a suborbital launch from an Alaska spaceport July 20, but a week after the event few details about the event are clear, including its outcome.
Astra Space carried out a launch at 6 p.m. Eastern July 20 of its Rocket 1 vehicle from Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska on Kodiak Island, Alaska. Foggy conditions made it difficult to observe the launch, according to one local reporter covering the event.
Astra Space received a license from the Federal Aviation Administrations Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) in March for a suborbital test flight of its vehicle. According the license, the launch would carry an inert upper stage on a trajectory traveling to the south. The FAA also issued a notice to airmen restricting airspace in the vicinity of the launch site from July 14 to 21 due to rocket launch.
The launch, though, does not appear in the list of licensed launches maintained by AST on its website, even though the list includes launches, both orbital and suborbital, that took place since the Astra Space event. In a statement provided by the FAA July 24 in response to a SpaceNews inquiry, it confirmed that the launch took place but that a mishap of some kind occurred.
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