Astra set up a rocket launch with five people and came within seconds of orbit

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  Rocket 3.2 takes off on Tuesday afternoon. [credit: John Kraus for Astra ]

If we're being honest, Astra's first orbital launch attempt in September was just not all that impressive. Within 10 or 15 seconds of launching, Rocket 3.1 began to veer off course, and it had to be commanded to shut down before it flew out of its safety corridor.

After the flight, Astra's leaders put a brave face on the short mission, saying they were "pretty pleased" with the rocket's performance, and they thought they were dealing with a software problem rather than a hardware one. Even so, it did not exactly instill confidence in the four-year-old company. The COVID-19 pandemic was starting to flare back up across the world, fundraising was tight in the industry, and it seemed like Astra may still have a very long way to go before getting into space.

Amid these dark times, however, Astra's team of about 100 employees put their heads down and their masks on and plowed forward. In doing so, they worked something of a miracle, readying Rocket 3.2 and getting it to the company's launch site in Alaska in fewer than three months.

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