Launch startup Astra gets up to $44 million from US military for new 'Rocket 4' line

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'This award is a testament not only to our team's perseverance this past year, but also a validation of our vision for tactically responsive space.'

a white rocket launches into a darkening sky
Astra's Launch Vehicle 0009 lifts off from Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex on March 15, 2022. The rocket successfully delivered satellites to orbit, a huge first for Astra. (Image credit: Astra/NASASpaceflight.com)

Astra just got some help in getting its new rocket off the ground.

The California-based company announced today (Oct. 23) that it has signed a contract with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a U.S. military organization that focuses on adopting and adapting commercial technologies.

The deal, worth up to $44 million, "supports advancing and scaling the production capabilities of Astra's unique tactically responsive launch system, to achieve the prototype objective of launching Rocket 4 to orbit or suborbit and from the U.S., Australia, or other locations," Astra wrote in a statement today.

Rocket 4 is Astra's planned next-gen launch system. It's bigger and more powerful than Rocket 3, which the company retired in 2022 after it experienced a reported five failures out of seven orbital launch attempts.

One of those failures was the final Rocket 3 flight, a June 2022 liftoff that did not deliver its payload — two hurricane-tracking NASA cubesats — to the proper orbit. 

Video: Watch Astra's LV0010 rocket launch failure with NASA satellites

Those troubles forced some shakeups at Astra. For example, the company had been publicly traded since 2021, but its two co-founders, Chris Kemp and Adam London, took it private earlier this year to avoid declaring bankruptcy.

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Kemp, who also serves as Astra's CEO, alluded to such travails in the company's statement today.

"This award is a testament not only to our team's perseverance this past year, but also a validation of our vision for tactically responsive space," he said. "We're proud to have so many partners who understand and support the importance of point-to-point space delivery for national security and defense applications."

Astra's two-stage Rocket 4 will stand 62 feet (18.9 meters) tall and be capable of hauling 1,320 pounds (600 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit, according to the company's spec page. Astra aims to launch the rocket on a roughly weekly cadence once it's up and running.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.