Rocket 3.1 launch
Astra's Rocket 3.1 vehicle lifts off Sept. 11 from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The flight ended later in the rocket's first-stage burn.

Three small launch vehicle developers won a combined $16.7 million in NASA contracts as part of an effort to support the development of new launch vehicles.

This post is only available to members.

Jeff Foust has more than a decade of experience writing about space policy, entrepreneurial ventures and regulatory affairs. In 2001, he established spacetoday.net to aggregate and summarize the day's space-related news stories. In 2003, he started The...