When the US firm Astra tried to launch its latest rocket up to low-earth orbit, one of the engines failed on the launch pad — so instead of going up, the rocket remained upright but shuffled off sideways, almost like it was slinking out of the room.
After a few seconds, it started going up — but was still moving sideways, so it ascended diagonally, though still in an upright position.
It eventually began heading straight up, but it didn't have enough power to get high enough, and Astra scotched the flight. As the Register reports …
"After approximately two minutes and thirty seconds of flight, the range issued an all engine-shutdown command, ending the flight," reads a company statement. "The vehicle achieved an altitude of approximately 50 kilometers, before safely returning to Earth."
It's a quite amazing sight. Things begin around 1:33:30 in that video, and the CEO tweeted another view of the launch here …
