The feat drew the attention of Musk.
On Saturday, Astra announced via Twitter that its LV0007 mission reached orbit from the Astra Spaceport in Kodiak, Alaska. The rocket, which carried a payload for the United States Space Force, took off at 1:16 a.m. Eastern time. The feat earned the praise of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who wrote on Twitter: “Congrats! Orbit is not easy.”
The milestone means Astra is one of a handful of private companies to successfully develop an orbital rocket. Following the launch Astra declared itself “the first rocket company to reach orbit in less than five years.”
The company was founded in 2016 and launched its first two rockets to suborbital space in 2018. Astra didn’t exit stealth mode until February 2020, and TechCrunch noted that it was referred to as “Stealth Space Company” before its big reveal.
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