chris kemp

Astra star hire Benjamin Lyon resigns, management team restructured

Space company Astra’s management team is undergoing another shake-up. The company said Friday that chief engineer Benjamin Lyon has resigned after just short of two years in the role. Rather than se

Astra brings on new CFO as it looks to scale launch and propulsion businesses

Astra is bringing on Silicon Valley veteran Axel Martinez as its new chief financial officer, a C-suite change that in many ways demarcates a new chapter for the space company. Martinez’s career inc

Astra changes strategy and ditches current rocket in the wake of launch debacles

Astra CEO Chris Kemp told investors Thursday that the company will be no longer launch payloads with its current lightweight vehicle, Rocket 3, and will instead re-manifest all launches on a considera

Astra’s playing the long game

In a time when every rocket launch is livestreamed on YouTube, millions of people get a front row seat to a space company’s successes and failures. Astra, a rocket startup-turned-public company, has

Astra moves full steam ahead after successful orbital launch, looks to test Rocket 4.0 next year

Rocket startup-turned-public company Astra Space is flying high Monday morning, with stock prices increasing as much as 42% since markets opened thanks to the company’s first successful orbital flig

Astra completes investigation into August launch failure, aims for next attempt in October

Rocket launch startup Astra provided more details into its rather remarkable mission failure in August, during which the small launch vehicle hovered and drifted in the air before managing a brief ver

Astra awarded NASA launch contract for storm observation satellites

Astra, the Alameda-based space launch startup that recently announced its intent to go public via a SPAC merger, has secured a contract to deliver six cube satellites to space on behalf of NASA. Astra

Astra hires longtime Apple veteran Benjamin Lyon as chief engineer

New space startup Astra, which is currently focused on commercial rockets, but which plans to eventually build satellites, too, has hired one of Apple’s key engineering leaders to head its own e

Rocket startup Astra is going public via SPAC

Rocket launch company Astra, which just reached space this past December with a test launch from Alaska, will be going public on the Nasdaq via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPA

Virgin Orbit, Relativity Space and Astra dish on the economics and efficiencies of space launches

Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis, Astra CEO Chris Kemp and VOX Space (Virgin Orbit’s national-security-focused subsidiary) President Mandy Vaughn all joined us at TC Sessions: Space to jointly dis

Three different space launch companies — three very different approaches to solving for cost and efficiency

Launch startup Astra had a monumental week, achieving their first spaceflight with a rocket test on Tuesday. Astra CEO Chris Kemp joined Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis and VOX Space president Mandy Va

Announcing the final agenda for TC Sessions: Space 2020

TC Sessions: Space is happening this December 16 and 17 — our first-ever dedicated space event. This is a live, virtual two-day conference featuring the most important people in the space indust

Astra targets December for next orbital launch attempt

Astra is set to launch it’s next orbital rocket, with a window that opens on December 7 and lasts for 12 days following, until December 18, with an 11 AM to 2:30 PM PT block each day during whic

Announcing the agenda for TC Sessions: Space 2020

TC Sessions: Space is happening this December 16 and 17 — our first-ever dedicated space event. This is a live, virtual two-day conference featuring the most important people in the space indust

Rocket launch startup Astra readies for orbital test flight as early as Sunday

Rocket launch startup Astra is readying for its first orbital flight test, set to take place either this weekend or next week, weather permitting. The company will launch its “Rocket 3.1”

Astra completes Rocket 3.1 static test fire ahead of launch attempt

After a few setbacks exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 situation, another small rocket launcher is readying to demonstrate their ability to launch a vehicle to space. Astra has just completed a seco

Astra encounters anomaly during pre-launch testing, will evaluate options for next attempt

Rocket launch startup Astra, which had been attempting to claim DARPA’s prize for successful demonstration of flexible space launch capabilities until earlier this month, will not be moving forw

Max Q: A SpaceX spin-out sounds great

Max Q is a new weekly newsletter all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Sundays in your inbox. Two rocket launches were set to take off Sunday, including one from Wallops Island in Virg

Why Astra built a space startup and rocket factory in Silicon Valley

There’s a new launch startup in the mix called Astra, which has been operating in semi-stealth mode for the past three years, building its rockets just a stone’s throw from the heart of st

Rocket startup Astra emerges from stealth, aims to launch for as little as $1M per flight

There’s yet another new rocket launch startup throwing its hat in the ring — Astra, an Alameda-based company that’s actually been operating in stealth mode (though relatively openly,
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