FAA investigates rocket failure that destroyed University of Alabama satellite

NASA says the Federal Aviation Administration will work with the California based company Astra, after one of its rockets tumbled out of control shortly after liftoff on Thursday. The catastrophic in-flight failure destroyed the BAMA-1 satellite. That was a small experiment package designed and built by students at the University of Alabama. The rocket blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, at 3 p.m. on Thursday. The normal flight plan called for the vehicle to fly down range for three minutes. After that, the protective shroud covering the rocket’s second stage, and the four small satellites (including BAMA-1,) was supposed to open and fall away, allowing the trip to orbit to continue. That didn’t happen, and on-board cameras showed the rocket tumbling out of control. Fifty University of Alabama undergrads worked to design and build the BAMA-1 satellite, which was aboard the size of a breadbox. It was designed to test a drag parachute that could have been used, in the future, to bring orbiting satellites back to Earth safely. BAMA-1 was part of a series of student satellites, funded by NASA.