Well here is the thing, SLS cost 20 billion $ or more. And uses lots of components that existed before SLS was around. Vulcan still cost multiple billions to d

Well here is the thing, SLS cost 20 billion $ or more. And uses lots of components that existed before SLS was around. Vulcan still cost multiple billions to develop, the engines had to go threw a very demanding air force test and validation program first. The rocket was delayed for years because of issues with both the BE-4 and the Centaur. ULA has established suppliers and established factory, with lots of people that build and launch rockets. Those suppliers are very expensive, but if you have the US military paying you 200+ million $ per launch, you can afford that. To compare those to examples to a tiny startup rocket company is kind of absurd. They simply don't have lots of legacy reliable components. They can't use existing suppliers as those are far to expensive and don't have products for micro launchers. You are comparing rockets that cost 30x or 300x of what Astra priced their rocket at. Generally if you want to understand Astra issues, you have to understand the dynamics of the market. The main problem with Astra was that they were always behind the market. They started with a micro rocket, that was simply to small for most sats. So before they ever made that reliable they made the rocket bigger. And once they had done that it was pretty clear that the market needed even bigger sats. So they iterated again and made their rocket bigger. But that happened again so they gave up that rocket and (in theory) now they are building an even bigger rocket. They never actually settled on a design. The basically launch a new rocket 1-2 times and before they had figured out all the issues were already looking at the next design and those designs had new issues. It was more important for the CEO scam and lie about how brilliant the next rocket was gone be so nobody thought to much about why the last rocket blew up. The companies main product was selling stock to uninformed people. When RocketLab and others strategically moved into space craft, Astra bought a Ion-Engine company just so they can say they do the same thing. When SpaceX had success with Starlink, Astra promised to have an even better global internet. Having a good story was more the priority then having good engineering and good execution. This book is a good read: "When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach" Its about Planet, Astra, RocketLab and Firefly. Book doesn't make the Astra CEO look great.