Are Engines The Future Of Astra Space?
If you have been keeping up with Astra Space over the past few months, you may have noticed a few different things. Recently the company attempted to reach orbit and was unsuccessful, adding to the list of failed launches. This along with other reasons prompted the company to move on from the Rocket 3 line and work towards the next Astra launch vehicle model.
In addition to this, the company has been releasing a lot more updates on its engines. Specifically, the company has been developing the Astra Spacecraft Engine, designed to be a flight-proven electric propulsion system for constellations. With the official report on the most recent launch still being worked on, this has been the majority of updates from the company.
This includes the recent announcement of the successful orbital ignition of the Apollo Fusion thruster on board the Spaceflight Sherpa-LTE1 orbital transfer vehicle, or OTV. This brings up the question of what exactly is Astra working on and what does the future of the company look like? Here I will go more in-depth into the recent updates from the company, the Astra engine, and more.
Recent Updates
In the last few months, Astra has been consistently providing updates on its engines. Starting on July 25th the company tweeted saying, “Astra Spacecraft Engine is delivering more efficient and affordable propulsion to the satellite market.” Not long after on August 4th, they tweeted again this time mentioning, “We successfully ignited the engine in space on our first attempt and have since performed hundreds of successful ignitions, which exceeded expectations set in ground tests. We are scaling engine production and have qualified our engine to use Krypton.” Finally, only a few days ago on the 19th, the company retweeted a post pointing out, “Our Astra Spacecraft Engine™ ignited on its 1st attempt on Aug 20, 2021, aboard @SpaceflightInc’s Sherpa-LTE all-electric OTV. It recently surpassed its 300th on-orbit burn.” More specifically, the first Astra Spacecraft Engine reached orbit on June 30th, 2021 aboard Spaceflight’s Sherpa-LTE all-electric Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) on the Spaceflight Sherpa-LTE1 SXRS-5 mission. After several weeks of Sherpa-LTE commissioning — spacecraft checks to make certain everything is working as planned — the electric propulsion system ignited on its first attempt on August 20th, 2021, and recently surpassed its 300th on-orbit burn. In this piece, Astra will take a look at the observed on-orbit data that demonstrates the propulsion system’s consistent on-orbit performance, to date. The company highlights that today, on-orbit propulsion and mobility are important components of safe, economical, and effective space services. Whether raising to a different orbit from initial insertion, executing collision avoidance, or ensuring that a constellation is adequately equipped for responsible end-of-life operations, an efficient and reliable on-orbit propulsion system is a mission-critical system aboard any spacecraft.
While these recent tweets highlight the focus Astra is putting into its engines, the company has been working on them for quite a while now. Just about a year ago on August 24th, 2021, Astra announced the successful orbital ignition of its Apollo Fusion thruster on board the Spaceflight Sherpa-LTE1 orbital transfer vehicle (OTV). The Sherpa OTV launched June 30th, 2021 from SpaceX’s Transporter-2 mission from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After successfully deploying all rideshare payloads, Spaceflight commissioned the Apollo Fusion thruster, representing Astra’s first attempt at firing the thruster in orbit. “The telemetry from the on-orbit firing looked excellent and closely matched our ground test results,” said Mike Cassidy, Vice President of Product Management at Astra. “We expect to deliver thrusters for additional satellites over the next quarter and these on-orbit test results provide further validation for several programs for which we are supplying propulsion systems.”
“This represents the industry’s first fully functional electric propulsion OTV,” said Philip Bracken, VP of Engineering at Spaceflight. “Our next-gen Sherpa OTVs were intentionally designed for maximum modularity, flexibility, and rapid development including offering several innovative propulsion solutions. The successful commissioning and ignition of Apollo Fusion’s system paves the way for expanding orbital destinations for smallsats and is paramount in achieving our goal of getting our customers’ payloads to space whenever and wherever they want.” Astra acquired Apollo Fusion in July 2021 to leverage Apollo Fusion’s shared focus on designing and manufacturing products at scale that can reach destinations beyond low Earth orbit. “We’re incredibly proud of everyone who built this EP system,” said Benjamin Lyon, Chief Engineer at Astra. “This is an important milestone on our journey to provide rapid, low-cost access to space.”
In addition to this, earlier this year on April 12th, LeoStella announced a contract for Astra to provide multiple Astra Spacecraft Engines for LeoStella satellites. Astra is expected to begin delivering the propulsion systems later this year and into 2023. More specifically, LeoStella designs and manufactures operational satellites cost effectively and at scale. Astra’s Spacecraft Engine has demonstrated that it can assist satellites in achieving and maintaining target orbits and maneuverability and is expected to be integrated onto a variety of LeoStella’s satellites. “As demand for small satellites continues to grow, we are always looking for innovative options to provide highly efficient, reliable propulsion for our satellites,” said Tod Byquist, Director of Programs and Supply Chain at LeoStella. “Astra’s Spacecraft Engine has good flight heritage and the performance we need to get our satellites to space on schedule.”
“LeoStella is a pioneering force in constructing critical space infrastructure through a variety of satellite designs,” said Mike Cassidy, VP of Product Management at Astra. “Their vision to deploy reliable, cost-effective satellites aligns closely with Astra’s and demonstrates the innovative forces at work to expand and accelerate access to space.” It’s clear from all these different partnerships and deals that Astra is very serious about the future of developing engines.
Astra Spacecraft Engine
Now that we know more about Astra’s recent engine updates and what the company is working towards, we can take a closer look at the engines themselves. Astra describes that the Astra Spacecraft Engine (ASE) & Astra Spacecraft Engine Max (ASE Max) can be configured with multiple thrusters and PPUs to handle a wide range of missions, from the smallest earth observation satellites up to large communications satellites with multiple kilowatts of solar power. Each system is delivered fully integrated and tested to reduce spacecraft development complexity, while improving on orbit reliability. These two different engines offer specific features meant for a variety of applications.
ASE Max is a kilowatt class propulsion system using krypton or xenon propellant for missions requiring high total impulse per thruster. ASE Max is ideal for communication satellite constellations, for small GEO spacecraft, and as an enabling technology for high throughput LEO, GTO-GEO transfer, and cislunar missions. ASE Max includes a magnetically shielded thruster which is tuned to optimize performance with krypton propellant. The thruster is matched to an Astra radiation-hardened, 95% efficient, single board PPU, a propellant management system with flight heritage components, and a COPV tank sized to fit customer mission requirements. ASE Max has been selected for programs such as a GEO mission and a commercial constellation with several hundred satellites.
In addition, the Astra Spacecraft Engine is a fully-integrated electric propulsion system that consists of a Hall-effect thruster (HET), a pneumatic feed system, radiation-hardened (rad-hard) electronics, and a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel (COPV) tank that can be shipped to a launch site fully fueled. Astra handles all aspects of design, integration, and testing for shipping and launching a propulsion system. The system uses the same space-qualified components for each customer to meet each customer’s specific mission requirements. Each module can be configured with multiple thrusters if desired and various tank sizes to support a broad range of missions including low Earth orbit (LEO) raising, medium Earth orbit (MEO) raising, geostationary orbit (GEO) raising, station keeping, cis-lunar transfers, and de-orbiting. Prior to flight, the propulsion system undergoes a battery of ground tests including vibration, shock, thermal, pressure, and leak testing. The full system is hot fire tested, with performance measured for comparison to on-orbit operations.
Conclusion
While Astra has been having some trouble in the rocket department, they are continuing to try and make progress on engines. In the last few weeks alone we have seen a host of different updates on Astra’s propulsion technology and plans. We will have to wait and see how it progresses and the impact it has on the space industry.