DARPA’s competition to find a rapid rocket launch provider ends without a winner

Astra’s rocket on the launchpad in Alaska. | Image: DARPA

DARPA’s competition to find a rocket company that can rapidly send satellites to space ended without a winner on March 2nd when the final team failed to launch by the contest’s deadline. Rocket startup Astra Space came within less than a minute of launching its brand-new rocket for the competition out of Alaska, but it had to halt the mission due to some bad data from the vehicle. As a result, the company lost out on winning up to $12 million — and now, no one will win the money prize.

The competition, known as the DARPA Launch Challenge, began about two years ago with the goal of finding a rocket launch provider that could quickly respond to a request to launch any payload from the military. To win the competition, eligible teams had to...

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DARPA’s competition to find a rapid rocket launch provider ends without a winner DARPA’s competition to find a rapid rocket launch provider ends without a winner Reviewed by Benny on March 03, 2020 Rating: 5

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