Astra

Astra builds and operates launch vehicles and spacecraft propulsion systems, with the stated aim of making access to orbit routine and reliable. The company was founded in October 2016 by Chris Kemp and Dr. Adam London in a garage in San Francisco, and is now headquartered in Alameda, California. It reached its first test launch in July 2018, less than two years after founding, and is described as the fastest private company in history to reach orbit. Launch sites have been established across the globe.

Its product line covers both launch and in-space propulsion. Rocket 4.0 is a responsive mobile launch vehicle designed for a weekly launch cadence. The Astra Spacecraft Engine is a flight-proven electric propulsion system, one of the industry's leading in its category. Technical work spans rocket engineering, launch vehicle design, electric and spacecraft propulsion, and mobile launch operations, across the space launch, satellite propulsion, aerospace and space infrastructure sectors.

For engineers, the defining feature is vertical integration: the team builds what it flies and flies what it build, owning the entire stack. Work is organised in small, empowered teams with direct ownership of problems. The culture values builders who ship and learn quickly, tolerates failure as part of rapid iteration, and is framed around a mission of improving life on Earth from space.