National space agency, Agency

Washington, June 13 Two NASA satellites aimed to study the formation and development of tropical cyclones almost every hour were lost during launch aboard an Astra rocket that suffered major failure shortly after liftoff.The Astra rocket, called Launch Vehicle 0010 (LV0010), suffered a second-stage failure after lifting off from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:43 p.m. EDT (11:13 pm IST) on Sunday."We had a nominal first stage flight; however, the upper-stage engine did shut down early and we did not deliver our payloads to orbit," Astra officials said on Twitter."We have shared our regrets with NASA and the payload team. More information will be provided after we complete a full data review," they added.The two lost satellites was part of NASA's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats (TROPICS), which aimed to send a six-satellite fleet to track hurricanes in a $30 million mission, Space.com reported.It was the first of three planned TROPICS missions this year by Astra, each carrying two NASA cubesats to complete the hurricane-watching constellation."TROPICS will give us very frequent views of tropical cyclones, providing insight into their formation, intensification, and interactions with their environment and providing critical data for storm monitoring and forecasting," Scott Braun, a research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement before launch.The failed launch is the second mishap this year for Astra, the report said.In February, the California-based company failed to launch four NASA cubesats as part of the ELaNa 41 mission. An issue with the rocket's payload fairing was to blame, with Astra implementing a fix to avoid a recurrence.Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

National Space AgencyFOLLOW

National space agency, Latest News

Washington, June 30 NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has captured the Moon passing in front of the Sun. ... ...

Washington, June 28 Rovers exploring Mars, such as NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance and others, may have to dig ... ...

Washington, June 26 NASA has cancelled its planned 2022 launch attempt of the Psyche asteroid mission the ... ...

New Delhi, June 23 China's Mars sample return mission aims to collect samples from the Red Planet and ... ...

Washington, June 22 The US space agency NASA has picked three design concept proposals for a nuclear fission ... ...

Washington, June 21 After halting Artemis 1 moon rocket's "wet dress rehearsal" several times, NASA has successfully completed ... ...

NAgpur, June 19 Tanuk Gurnule and Manav Mahalle combined well to share 24 points as Phoenix-A defeated Gurudeo Nagar ... ...

Washington, June 13 Two NASA satellites aimed to study the formation and development of tropical cyclones almost every ... ...