Why This Rocket Went Sideways Off The Launch Pad

Astra is a rocket builder that is aiming to handle the smallest payloads with their tiny launch vehicle which weighs less than 10 tons. Over the last few years they've got progressively closer to demonstrating an orbital launch capability. They'd been very secretive up to this point and this was the first live stream of one of their launches.

However things didn't go according to plan and the rocket took a bizarre trajectory off the launch pad, slipping sideways before starting to rise, ultimately reaching almost 50 kilometers before falling back into the Pacific ocean.

The launch footage was produced in collaboration with NasaSpaceFlight

[Rubrickety]

One could hardly ask for a better illustration of everything going sideways.

[Widestone]

I think the fact that the rocket survived the loss of an engine right at the start, righted itself and went up, up, and away speaks volumes to the quality of their programming and nuzzle vectoring / control.
That rocket has had the trial by fire and while it did not reach orbit, it survived (for a time). That's what Astra should be remembered for: Rockets that just won't go boom.

[dphuntsman]

I recently retired after 46 yrs in NASA; and I just want to say I respect the hell out of Astra just based on this launch yesterday and how they handled it as well. The fact that they had an almost immediate engine out inches above the pad- yet the vehicle recovered itself & took itself safely out of the area- speaks volumes as to the quality of the overall system engineering of the vehicle to me. Additionally, their openness on the livestream was simply outstanding, and I hope it continues, and in fact is replicated by other companies. Because here a new- and publicly-traded - company, was going live, and not only was fine overall system engineering on display in event of a major anomaly; but the immediate open-ness and appearance of the CEO - standing in front of the very next rocket to be launched - is to be applauded! As someone who has been thru lots and lots of launches - including a fatal one - my hats are off to these folks. How one conducts himself when bloodied says a lot, and both systems-wise, and corporate-wise, what Saturday’s bloody nose said about Astra is very positive.

[BravoNineThreeTwo]

"Getting to orbit isn't about reaching a certain altitude - it's about going sideways really fast"
Astra: "Noted"

[frankowalker]

The fact it could right itself and lift off is a marvel of engineering.

[ace]

the space x and space y joke is probably the most underrated joke on this channel!

[boduke]

The fact it was able to correct for a lost engine and still keep the pointy end straight up and continue to (eventually) launch may be more impressive than if everything worked perfect. Rockets launch perfectly all the time. I've never seen one malfunction this bad and still continue on.

[powwowken]

This has got to be the first time I've seen a rocket failure and ended up trusting the company more instead of less
It's insane that it stayed so stable and controllable after losing an engine at launch

[jonahcovarrubias]

Astra’s rocket just did the moon walk nothing out of the ordinary

[PanicProvisions]

Somewhere, there's a programmer who feels incredibly vindicated for spending so much time on ludicrous edge cases in the flight control software.

[Jesse__H]

On the bright side, the "flamey end down pointy end up" software seems to be working famously.

[benberkebile]

Honestly props to Astra for how they handled this. The transparency was great and they deserved a great flight, but hell if this wasn’t a good demonstration of their control systems and guidance!

[markusbjorklund]

"The rocket hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

could have been by Douglas Adams

[feynthefallen]

Literally THE most Kerbal thing I've ever seen a real world rocket do.

[Variety_Pack]

"SpaceX. SpaceY." I nearly died lol

Also, it just seems that Astra is playing KSP, no big deal. Engine breaks? Loss of thrust? Let's see how far it goes!

[joshuahowell]

This "failure" just put Astra into every rocket conversation I"m ever going to have.

[pheonixb]

That is the most graceful "failure" that I've ever seen...respect to the Astra team!

[DoorKip]

In the distance footage, the cameraman's confused pan up and back down when they can't find the rocket is a mood.

[fireflyf]

My favorite call was actually, "Approaching nominal (downrange) trajectory."

Meaning the guidance system was able to get the rocket back to not only vertical, but also close to nominal even after that severe of a deviation. That's actually very impressive.

[jm]

Spacex: "We land rockets falling sideways"
Astra: "Hold my booster..."