Astra has launched the ELaNa 41 mission for NASA, the company’s first flight from Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The LV0008 launch vehicle, the third Rocket 3.3 vehicle, lifted off at 3:00 PM EST (20:00 UTC). An anomaly occurred near the time of stage separation which prevented the payload from being successfully deployed.
The mission was to be the first for Astra to deploy satellites into orbit, lifting four CubeSats into a 500-kilometer altitude, 41-degree inclination Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The CubeSats were built by three different universities and the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This was the third launch of Rocket 3.3 with the last mission, STP-27AD2, successfully reaching orbit for the first time.