{"id":12496,"date":"2020-05-04T19:15:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T11:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-orbits-first-launch-could-happen-later-this-month\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T19:15:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T11:15:54","slug":"virgin-orbits-first-launch-could-happen-later-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-orbits-first-launch-could-happen-later-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Orbit\u2019s first launch could happen later this month"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Virgin Orbit\u2019s carrier jet, named Cosmic Girl, takes off April 12 from the Mojave Air and Space Port with the LauncherOne rocket under its left wing. Credit: Gene Blevins\/LA Daily News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgin Orbit could attempt its first orbital test launch later this month over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles, capping a development program for an air-launched small satellite carrier that began in earnest eight years ago.<\/p>\n

The small satellite launch company, part of Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Group, entered the final phase of pre-flight testing last week with a ground fueling test of its first flight-worthy LauncherOne rocket.<\/p>\n

Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit\u2019s CEO, said the company is on track for the rocket\u2019s first demonstration launch in May.<\/p>\n

The LauncherOne rocket is designed to compete with other commercial smallsat launchers, such as Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron booster, for contracts to deliver CubeSats and microsatellites to orbit for commercial customers, the U.S. military and NASA. Virgin Orbit says it can haul up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of cargo into a 310-mile-high (500-kilometer) polar sun-synchronous orbit, a standard operating orbit for Earth-imaging satellites.<\/p>\n

A dedicated launch by Virgin Orbit sells for around $12 million.<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit completed a cryogenic captive carry test of the LauncherOne rocket April 12, demonstrating the performance of the launch vehicle, its Boeing 747 carrier jet, telemetry and tracking systems, and ground teams. For the captive carry test, Virgin Orbit loaded the two-stage rocket with kerosene fuel, high-pressure gases and super-cold liquid nitrogen to simulate the cryogenic temperature of liquid oxygen, which the LauncherOne vehicle will consume with kerosene during a real launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was really the capstone test for the development program,\u201d Hart said in a recent interview with Spaceflight Now. \u201cWe will do a couple of wet dress rehearsals over the next couple of weeks just to flow LOX (liquid oxygen) through the system and verify any minor tweaks we make to the countdown.<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit announced Friday that one of the two planned wet dress rehearsals was successfully completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have our mission readiness review and out launch readiness review, and then we\u2019ll be ready to fly,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a small number of weeks, and it\u2019s really dependent upon, just making sure that there\u2019s nothing in the data that pops up \u2026 May is what we\u2019re targeting,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n

With its headquarters and rocket factory in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 as a spinoff to Virgin Galactic, Branson\u2019s suborbital space tourism company. Virgin Galactic managed the early years of LauncherOne\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

Along with Branson\u2019s Virgin Group, other investors in Virgin Orbit include Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund.<\/p>\n

During the April 12 captive carry flight, Virgin Orbit\u2019s Boeing 747 carrier jet took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California\u2019s high desert and flew off the coast. With a four-person crew of pilots and launch support engineers, the jumbo jet flew a race track pattern over the Pacific Ocean before lining up for a simulated launch run west of San Nicolas Island, which is owned by the U.S. Navy.<\/p>\n

The targeted drop point is located roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) west-southwest of Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Pilot Kelly Latimer commanded the carrier jet \u2014 a modified passenger airliner taken from the fleet of sister company Virgin Atlantic \u2014 into climb angle of more than 25 degrees. On a real launch, the nearly 30-ton rocket will be released from a pylon under the 747\u2019s left wing during the pull-up maneuver at an altitude of around 35,000 feet (nearly 10,700 meters).<\/p>\n

Four seconds after release, the rocket\u2019s kerosene-fueled NewtonThree engine will ignite with 73,500 pounds of thrust to begin climbing into orbit.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The drop point for Virgin Orbit\u2019s first test launch is located over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles. Credit: Google Maps\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgin Orbit is proceeding with the LauncherOne\u2019s debut launch while taking precautions to combat the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time the company readies for the demonstration launch, Virgin Orbit engineers are producing simplified ventilator devices to help patients with moderate cases of the COVID-19 viral disease.<\/p>\n

The Food and Drug Administration approved Virgin Orbit\u2019s ventilator design, which was conceived and produced in less than a month, for emergency use April 23. The company said the California Emergency Medical Services Authority ordered a batch of the \u201cbridge ventilators\u201d for potential use in hospitals throughout the state.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Spaceflight Now, Hart said Virgin Orbit adjusted the layout of the company\u2019s launch control rooms for the LauncherOne demonstration flight to reduce the chances of exposure to the coronavirus for company employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have conversations about this every day, and pretty much every week, we either alter course or adjust as we need,\u201d Hart said. \u201cSo far, with the provisions that we put in place, we\u2019ve been in pretty good shape. And we\u2019re trying to be leading edge. We monitor our peers in other companies, and what people are doing, what the CDC is advising, what the governor\u2019s office is mandating, but we also look at best practices across businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit needs fewer than a dozen technicians and engineers to prepare the 70-foot-long (21-meter) rocket for launch. On launch day, ground teams at Mojave Air and Space Port will connect and disconnect propellant loading lines, perform inspections and complete other tasks before the carrier aircraft \u2014 named \u201cCosmic Girl\u201d \u2014 taxi to the runway for takeoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have 10 who come in periodically to the rocket, during about two different periods of about a half an hour,\u201d Hart said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have the aircraft ground crew of roughly four or five people who come in at the key moments when the aircraft needs to taxi out, and then we\u2019ll have the four flight crew, and then me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the first launch, the company will distribute its launch controllers and engineering support team among six rooms in Mojave and at Virgin Orbit\u2019s headquarters in Long Beach. Virgin Orbit also installed dividers between the control consoles.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, you want eye-to-eye compact,\u201d Hart said. \u201cIn this case, dividers are both really beneficial from a health point of view, and it also gives you some peace of mind. We did quite a bit of work on the facility itself. We went from probably two-and-a-half rooms to more like six rooms. Big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The launch control team has also rehearsed countdown procedures virtually, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we ran through countdowns while people were sitting at home, going through nominal and off-nominal ops, and going through the handbook and all our malfunction procedures, so they could get the hang of going through a countdown where you don\u2019t have eye-to-eye contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re looking forward to it,\u201d Hart said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to stay very focused. Launch, by its very nature, requires a laser focus. Hopefully, COVID doesn\u2019t get us anywhere and we\u2019re able to manage through it in the current modes that we\u2019re in. I\u2019m keeping my eyes peeled. If we see distractions or issues pop up in the environment, we\u2019ll rethink and replan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Virgin Orbit last week completed a wet dress rehearsal on its LauncherOne rocket. Credit: Virgin Orbit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hart estimated that the work slow-down caused by the company\u2019s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic caused a delay of around three weeks in LauncherOne\u2019s debut test flight.<\/p>\n

The successful outcome of the April 12 captive carry test raised confidence in Virgin Orbit\u2019s readiness for the first launch, Hart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardware and software performed excellently, just perfectly. But more to the point, the teams and the orchestration of the overall effort went like clockwork,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a ground ops team, we have a mission control team, we have pilots and launch engineers, and of course engineering support. What was really impressive to me was just how well the teams in this new environment, with new communication protocols, how they supported each other and coordinated. It was a beautifully orchestrated day.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into the day, we had all the parts done,\u201d Hart said. \u201cAt the end of the day, we had a launch system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Virgin Orbit completed a series of flights of the carrier jet with a test version of the LauncherOne rocket, culminating in a drop of the inert rocket over Edwards Air Force Base, California. The rocket was filled with water to simulate the weight of a fully-fueled LauncherOne vehicle, and the test unit impacted the ground at Edwards after the 747 pilots command its release.<\/p>\n

At the time, the company aimed to perform its first test launch before the end of 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe areas where programs usually slow down is where components come into systems,\u201d Hart said. \u201cIt is very difficult to foresee what complexities or difficulties will appear during those. Whether it\u2019s our first captive carry test last year, or our stage hotfire test, you can\u2019t go through any of those system activities until everything is done, so anything that\u2019s either got a problem, a new analytical result, a component failure, a software problem, any of those at that point stops you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are the areas where you just have to put your head down with the team and burn through those, foresee as many as you can, and the ones that pop up in the 11th hour, drive through,\u201d he said .\u201dI\u2019m happy to say that the team has had the wherewithal and perseverance and resilience to drive through a ton of those to get us to where we are today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hart said Virgin Orbit has its launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, which reviewed the company\u2019s planned use of an autonomous flight termination system. The destruct mechanism would be used to terminate the flight if the rocket deviates from its expected trajectory after launch.<\/p>\n

For launch tracking, Virgin Orbit will use its own telemetry station at the company\u2019s Long Beach headquarters, along with other  telemetry stations in Baja California, Antarctica and Mauritius, Hart said. U.S. military launch range facilities at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base will not play an active role in the test launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the focus of this system is the flexibility,\u201d Hart said. \u201cWe wanted to \u2026 make sure that it was as self-contained as possible and that we weren\u2019t slave to a lot of assets that have a lot of different stakeholders, where you can get stopped and started continually.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re flying out of Mojave, we have our own telemetry connections, we have autonomous flight termination, we fly over the water, so the sensitivities associated with those are a bit modulated than if you\u2019re starting your rocket flight near a populated area,\u201d Hart said. \u201cAnd the 747 allows us to go a lot of different directions and go to a lot of different orbits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Virgin Orbit says it is on the cusp of its first orbital test flight. Credit: Virgin Orbit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the inaugural LauncherOne test flight, the rocket will carry Virgin Orbit\u2019s own \u201ctest payloads,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an engineering test of the system,\u201d Hart said. \u201cOf course, we would love it to get to orbit. The more of the system that we can exercise, the more confidence that we\u2019ll have for the next flight. We do know, and we\u2019re mindful, that a first flight is not without risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if we get through captive carry, first stage, into second stage, every single point that we get through closer to orbit, we\u2019ll be verifying huge parts of the system,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not publishing the exact orbit at this point (for the first flight), but it\u2019s a low Earth orbit, significantly de-rated for this first flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hart said Virgin Orbit aims to restart the second stage\u2019s NewtonFour engine once in space, validating the rocket\u2019s ability to deliver payloads to different orbits on the same mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re planning to exercise the whole system, so we will be restarting the upper stage,\u201d he said. That\u2019s in our plan. We have a payload that, if all goes well, we would deploy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit has not disclosed any details about the payloads to be launched on the rocket\u2019s first flight.<\/p>\n

Hart said Virgin Orbit plans to have a chase plane for the launch, and video cameras are mounted on the aircraft and the the LauncherOne vehicle itself to capture the rocket\u2019s release from the carrier jet, first stage ignition and climb into space.<\/p>\n

But the company does not plan to provide a live webcast for the LauncherOne demonstration flight. Instead, Virgin Orbit will release updates on social media as the flight progresses, Hart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn this flight, we\u2019ll have updates,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ll have continuous video for this first launch. But we\u2019ll be pushing things out as far as how we\u2019re doing in ground processing, where we are in taxiing, and how we\u2019re doing as we go through the flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hart said Virgin Orbit is looking at producing live video streams for the public on future missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just, for this first one, there\u2019s so much for us to track and get our arms around, it adds another level of complexity that we just didn\u2019t want to get into,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Orbit\u2019s carrier jet, named Cosmic Girl, takes off April 12 from the Mojave Air and Space Port with the LauncherOne rocket under its left wing. Credit: Gene Blevins\/LA Daily News Virgin Orbit could attempt its first orbital test launch later this month over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Los Angeles, capping a development program […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[670,1917,291,1932,2147,25,1550,2148],"class_list":["post-12496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing","tag-boeing-747","tag-commercial-space","tag-cosmic-girl","tag-dan-hart","tag-launch","tag-launcherone","tag-launcherone-launch-demo"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}