Quote from: imprezive on 11/10/2022 03:18 pmQuote from: Robotbeat on 11/10/2022 01:50 amIf Firefly can survive all the crap it went through, major lawsuits and a restructuring and abandoning aerospikes and then having war in Ukraine force their main owner to liquidate their shares... nearly dying at least twice before reaching orbit, I don't think we can totally write-off Astra already.Firefly is arguably a lot more valuable than Astra. Not only do they have a bigger rocket but they have presumably good engines and a lunar lander with a NASA contract.Neither are guarantees of viability (e.g. Masten also had a CLPS contract and plenty of well tested engines).
Quote from: Robotbeat on 11/10/2022 01:50 amIf Firefly can survive all the crap it went through, major lawsuits and a restructuring and abandoning aerospikes and then having war in Ukraine force their main owner to liquidate their shares... nearly dying at least twice before reaching orbit, I don't think we can totally write-off Astra already.Firefly is arguably a lot more valuable than Astra. Not only do they have a bigger rocket but they have presumably good engines and a lunar lander with a NASA contract.
If Firefly can survive all the crap it went through, major lawsuits and a restructuring and abandoning aerospikes and then having war in Ukraine force their main owner to liquidate their shares... nearly dying at least twice before reaching orbit, I don't think we can totally write-off Astra already.
Quote from: edzieba on 11/10/2022 03:40 pmQuote from: imprezive on 11/10/2022 03:18 pmQuote from: Robotbeat on 11/10/2022 01:50 amIf Firefly can survive all the crap it went through, major lawsuits and a restructuring and abandoning aerospikes and then having war in Ukraine force their main owner to liquidate their shares... nearly dying at least twice before reaching orbit, I don't think we can totally write-off Astra already.Firefly is arguably a lot more valuable than Astra. Not only do they have a bigger rocket but they have presumably good engines and a lunar lander with a NASA contract.Neither are guarantees of viability (e.g. Masten also had a CLPS contract and plenty of well tested engines).Financially Firefly is in better position as their owners AE Industrial Partners have access too lot more capital it needed. They also have relationship with NG who don't want to build Antares Version 4 because Firefly disappeared.
Perhaps the most notable part of this announcement is that former chief engineer and executive VP of operations and engineering, Benjamin Lyon, has resigned from the company:
Astra promotes senior leadership to management team:
We are incredibly grateful to @benjaminblyon for his stewardship in taking Astra to orbit, and helping build a world-class engineering and operations organization.
I spoke to Astra CEO Chris Kemp for more on the company's management changes:"Putting the team that was reporting to [Lyon] under me basically flattens the entire thing, and just allows us to execute faster."
Astra has been an incredible place to grow one of the most talented engineering & operations teams I’ve ever worked alongside. I’m beyond grateful to have been a part of the journey and to the entire crew for what we’ve accomplished. #AdAstra
Bing maps continues their trend of having more recent pictures than Google maps
As we head into 2023, we're taking a look back at everything the team accomplished in 2022:
