WASHINGTON — Astra has won a contract from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) worth up to $44 million to support development of its Rocket 4 launch vehicle.
The company announced Oct. 23 it won the contract, which it said would go towards work on various aspects of Rocket 4, a vehicle designed to place up to 600 kilograms into orbit, including “industrialization of Astra’s production facilities.”
The contract is part of a DIU program called Novel Responsive Space Delivery that included previous awards to another launch vehicle company, Stoke Space, and The Spaceport Company, which is developing sea-based launch platforms. DIU said the contract will support “prototyping a solution that will enable responsive and precise point-to-point delivery of cargo to, through, and from space.”
In an Oct. 24 interview, Chris Kemp, chief executive of Astra, said the contract stems from the Defense Department’s interest in mobile launch systems. “What the DoD sees is a number of companies like Virgin Orbit that just don’t exist anymore that had these tactical mobile launch systems. And Astra may be the only one left,” he said. “They really don’t want to see Astra not deliver our new launch system.”
Astra has gone through its own struggles, including funding crises that saw the company flirt with bankruptcy after going public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. Astra completed a deal, led by Kemp and co-founder Adam London, to go private in July.
Kemp said that throughout that process Astra continued work on Rocket 4, although it did move some engineers from the rocket to its Astra Spacecraft Engine electric propulsion project. “The teams are continuing to work on Rocket 4, and this just provides additional financial support for them to continue to do so,” he said of the DIU contract.
While the contract has a ceiling of $44 million, the initial funded value of the award is about $2 million, Astra said,…
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