Astra’s Launch Vehicle 0010 (LV0010) lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:43PM ET, but failed about 10 minutes later due to an upper stage failure. The launch was part of NASA’s mission to send six TROPICS satellites into space — these small, foot-long CubeSats are designed to help NASA track developing tropical storms. CubeSats are low-cost satellites that are frequently built by college and university researchers.
