This had a very “Early Atlas Test Flight Anomaly” feel to it.
This launch went wrong right form the get-go… but it did a *magnificent* job of recovering. It just wasn’t magnificent enough; seems it never did have enough thrust due to one of the five engines failing right after liftoff. Went terminally goofy at Max-Q, apparently on a command to terminate the flight due to being outside of its launch corridor.
This is the third flight for the Astra in a year… and the third failure. SpaceX also failed a lot, as did the Ranger lunar missions. if the funds and the will are there, they can fix the problems and make a success of it. *If.*
I feel like I need to apologise to Astra for this…. but it was too good a joke to ignore. pic.twitter.com/Wg8ybvhDDU
— Scott Manley (@DJSnM) August 29, 2021