Astra's Revolutionary Manufacturing Process | Rocket 4 Factory Tour

Discover the fascinating journey of Astra, the rocket company with its new Rocket Four. Join us as we delve into Astra's latest manufacturing and quality control improvements, aiming to produce a rocket a day! In this exclusive video, we sit down with Astra's CEO, Chris Kemp, and Vice President of Manufacturing, Bryson Gentilly, to learn about their plans for scaling up production. Witness the raw materials transform into rockets as we explore the cutting-edge assembly line and precision machining shop. Don't miss this in-depth look at Astra's extraordinary efforts to revolutionize the space industry! Oh and Jack tries to get a payload flown on Rocket 4.

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✂️ Edited by Jack Beyer.
💼 Produced by Michael Baylor and Jack Beyer.

🔍 All content copyright to NSF. Not to be used elsewhere without explicit permission from NSF.

L2 Boca Chica (more clips and photos) from BC's very early days to today.

#Astra #Factorytour #productionline #rockets #rocket #smallsat #ChrisKemp #Rocket4

0:00 - Intro
0:42 - Large Inventory
2:12 - Factory Overview and Sheet Metal Shop
5:34 - Machine Shop (Development)
12:27 - Machine Shop (Production)
21:59 - Quality Control Lab
29:20 - Chris Kemp / Rocket Assembly Line
1:00:00 - Rocket 4

[alanc]

First, let me say thank you to Chris Kemp and Bryson Gentile for allowing NSF to come in and have a look around. Seeing the changes in production method and the cadence they are reaching is impressive. Looking forward to seeing these rockets back out on the pad and taking flight.

[Papershields]

I love how Astra makes the effort to reach out to the space fan community this way. Kudos to them

[JigilJigil]

1 - Great to see a rocket company opens its doors to your cameras for a tour video.
2 - I like how they have invested in expensive top notch Japanese CNC machines to make quality parts, and it's great to see they do that much in house.
3 - I like how they think big, "A Rocket A Day", this is how an industry rise to another level, even if these ambitious goals don't end up with bearing fruit.
4 - I like how Bryson Gentile and Chris Kemp took the time to show the facility and explained the details of their processes and the mentality behind their manufacturing approach, eventhough I know this video has a promotional aspect, but they could easily ask for 5-10 minutes tour video and that would be enough for them, but it's an hour long video, (thanks to them and NSF).
5 - It's great to see there are people and startups that are into building large facilities like this one and manufacturing real physical products, when we live in a world where software and AI are far less risky and are far more profitable.
Great Tour

[ross]

Thank you Jack and the NSF team for this behind the scenes look at Astra's manufacturing approach. They're clearly embracing the importance of the machine that builds the machine and acknowledging how this contributes to vehicle reliability. After a few Rocket 3 failures, this is obviously key to Astra's future success and this factory tour fills me with hope that they're going to come back better and stronger.

[RobertKenny]

The context here about development vs production machining is great.

[RealAndySkibba]

This is a super cool video. Always love when companies can show how they make things and demystify the process.

Some of my favorite videos to watch as a mechanical engineer.

[jimcabezola]

An outstanding tour. All of the explanations were clear and as precise as..well...ITAR and such...could allow. Wonderful. PLEASE make more of these visits to Astra and to as many space launch providers you can. You folks have a great talent of making the employees comfortable, too. That's important for such presentations as these. Aloha from your subscribers out here in Hawai'i.

[bradbrowatzke]

These videos really solidify the drive of the company, and what they are trying to achieve as a whole. I appreciate the time you take doing them, and not biasing to one or two rocket and spaceflight companies. This is so much better then when it was only NASA, and the behind-the-scenes was all scripted and sanitised, particularly during the Apollo and early shuttle development. This bodes well for future interest by students graduating and wondering what they are going to, or what they want to do as a career.

[Jogaphi]

Good to see Astra again. I really hope they will show us some more launches. Best of luck to Astras Team!

[proesterchen]

Holy smokes, a big boy video! Can't wait to finish it. 👍👍

[earthLTD]

Awesome. I'm blown away and tickled by the progress that happens when you bring efficient 'principles' into the manufacturing/design process. I'm retired after 50 years in industry being frustrated by the limits of 'legacy' thinking.

[kensingsta]

This is a phenomenal tour. Thank you Astra for allowing this.

[corrinastanley]

That was a really great tour, thanks Jack and the NSF team.

[justindelong]

Wow! What an excellent video! Thank you to Astra for allowing NSF to document your place in history! You have a bright future ahead. I also hope as Star Factory gets finished that NSF will be able to do a similar video for Starship.

[minimalpetite]

Just finished reading “When The Heavens Went On Sale” so this is perfect timing. I’ve been wanting to research more about ASTR, mostly to see if it’s worth buying. Thanks NSF for providing a good research material.

[warning-expert]

Thank you Astra team for letting us see behind the curtain on Rocket 4, as an investor it gets me very excited to see the future developments of this company and thank you NSF for yet another great video, keep up the great work everyone! thank you, cheers

[jonny]

Awesome factory tour. Thank you very much for the openess of Astra and the commitment of NSF!

[maskddingo]

I like Astra. I wish them good fortune. It must be tense times around there these days. Can't wait to see rocket 4 go!!!

[iwayini]

Great video. Wow for Astra to give us that access is just fantastic. It is so important for space companies to connect with the fans and public. Having transparency without revealing the secret sauce is such a powerful means of evaluating a company; not only for shareholders, but demonstrating competency, quality assurance and the culture of the company. This is an essentially a showcase of the workplace to the likes of NASA and other customers. Congratulations Astra! I am rooting for you to be successful and hopefully pay back for all the investment and headaches. Chris and Bryson you can take the day off!

To the NSF team - keep up the good work!

[inkeycat]

What a magnificent tour.
It stuck me that this tour is exactly what rocket building should be. What a vision!
I hope with everything I've got that Astra are successful. They sure deserve it, what with all the effort and grind they are investing into their intentions for space.