The first private attempt to fly to an asteroid was unsuccessful, but the company still considers it a victory. The California-based startup AstroForge launched a spacecraft named Odin on February 26, but the team lost contact with it shortly after its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
“The chance to talk to Odin is minimal, as the accuracy of its position becomes an issue at this point,” the company said in a detailed mission report. Technical problems arose at the main ground station in Australia, but AstroForge said other problems could have occurred on Odin that would have made contact even more difficult.
Although the launch was unsuccessful, AstroForge remains optimistic about the project as a valuable learning experience towards its ultimate goal of building and operating an asteroid mining vehicle. The company has set its sights on asteroid 2022 OB5 to eventually land on its surface and extract potentially valuable resources. Odin was built in 10 months for $3.5 million, a fraction of the money and time it takes to complete federal space projects.
AstroForge CEO Matt Gialich quoted several profanity-laced quotes at the briefing and summed up the company’s ethos as follows: “At the end of the day, you have to show up and take a shot, right? You have to try.”
