Tag: Virgin Orbit
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Virgin Orbit sends 10 satellites to orbit, building on Paul Allen’s air-launch legacy
LauncherOne lights up its rocket engine after its release from a carrier airplane. (Virgin Orbit Photo) Eight months after an unsuccessful first attempt, Virgin Orbit finally lived up to its name today and used an innovative air-launch system to put 10 satellites in orbit. With backing from British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne system…
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LauncherOne reaches orbit on second attempt with NASA CubeSats
After an eight month stand down to resolve issues revealed during the first mission of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, the company made their second orbital launch attempt on Sunday, January 17. The air-launched rocket successfully carried ten CubeSats to their target orbit for NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. The cosmic girl aircraft took…
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Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket misses going to space during its first air launch
Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket fires its booster engine after its release from the Cosmic Girl carrier airplane. (Virgin Orbit Photo) A new breed of launch vehicle had a shaky first outing today when Virgin Orbit released its LauncherOne rocket from a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet flying over the Pacific Ocean for its first blastoff.…
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Virgin Orbit’s First Orbital Launch Attempt Terminated Shortly After Release
After years of development and testing, Virgin Orbit has conducted its first orbital launch attempt. The maiden flight of the air-launched LauncherOne rocket occurred on Monday, May 25, with the Cosmic Girl carrier aircraft taking off from Mojave Air and Space Port at 11:56 AM PDT (18:56 UTC) and releasing LauncherOne at 12:50 PM PDT…
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LauncherOne Cryo Captive Carry test on Cosmic Girl – wins smallsat missions
Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne is getting closer to its debut launch following the weekend’s successful cryo captive carry test. The test was conducted shortly after VOX Space – a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit for national security missions – announced they won a contract to launch three dedicated missions for the U.S. Space Force (USSF), for the…
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Small Satellite Launchers Poised for Big 2020
In 2019, American companies reached crucial milestones on the path towards launching small satellites. Firefly Aerospace and Virgin Orbit both secured partnerships and accomplished test objectives ahead of their respective rockets’ first flights this year. Concurrently, Rocket Lab improved its launch cadence and began evolving their Electron rocket as they look towards expanding their capabilities…
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Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl conducts successful drop test with LauncherOne
Virgin Orbit achieved another major milestone in its test program for LauncherOne when an inert rocket was drop tested over a test range at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The flight saw the Cosmic Girl carrier aircraft follow up on its series of captive carry flights with Wednesday’s release of its LauncherOne rocket. The…
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The three finalists in the DARPA Launch Challenge include a mystery competitor
An artist’s conception shows multiple rockets lifting off from an oceanside launch complex. (DARPA Illustration) Three teams have qualified to go into the rocket-launching phase of the DARPA Launch Challenge: Vector Launch, Virgin Orbit’s VOX Space subsidiary … and a team to be named later. In making today’s announcement, DARPA said the third team asked to…
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Cosmic Girl takes LauncherOne on its first captive carry flight test
Virgin Orbit achieved another major milestone on Sunday, with LauncherOne taken on a captive carry test on Sunday. Carried under the wing of Cosmic Girl, a “flying launch pad” as described by the company, the duo enjoyed a successful first flight together, paving the way for the first launch that is set to take place…
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Virgin Orbit jet aces its first captive-carry flight with LauncherOne rocket attached
Virgin Orbit’s 70-foot-long LauncherOne rocket is hooked beneath the left wing of the modified 747 jet known as Cosmic Girl during the first captive-carry flight. (Virgin Orbit Photo) Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747 jet, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, has made its first test flight with a LauncherOne rocket tucked under its wing. The 80-minute captive-carry flight…