{"id":18300,"date":"2018-10-24T22:25:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T14:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/its-a-first-virgin-orbit-fits-launcherone-rocket-under-the-wing-of-cosmic-girl-jet\/"},"modified":"2018-10-24T22:25:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T14:25:55","slug":"its-a-first-virgin-orbit-fits-launcherone-rocket-under-the-wing-of-cosmic-girl-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/its-a-first-virgin-orbit-fits-launcherone-rocket-under-the-wing-of-cosmic-girl-jet\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a first: Virgin Orbit fits LauncherOne rocket under the wing of Cosmic Girl jet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LauncherOne
Virgin Orbit\u2019s LauncherOne rocket undergoes fit checks underneath a 747 jet that\u2019s been modified to serve as a carrier airplane. (Virgin Orbit Photo via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What do you get when you cross a Boeing 747 with a rocket launcher? You get something like what you see in the pictures that Virgin Orbit sent out today, showing a LauncherOne rocket tucked beneath the wing of a modified 747 that\u2019s been christened \u201cCosmic Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a system is designed to serve as Virgin Orbit\u2019s air-launch platform for putting payloads weighing up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) in orbit. Future customers include OneWeb, which is working on a constellation of satellites for global internet access; and Seattle-based Spaceflight, which handles the logistics for small-satellite launches.<\/p>\n

Virgin Orbit, a sister company to British billionaire Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Galactic, has been working on the system for years. The concept calls for a LauncherOne rocket and its payload to be attached to a pylon hanging down from Cosmic Girl\u2019s left wing. When the jet reaches its target altitude of 35,000 feet, the two-stage rocket is dropped from the pylon and fires up its Newton engines to head for orbit.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1055218216690012160<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1055298583442800640<\/p>\n

This type of air-launch system has been used for decades, but California-based Virgin Orbit aims to reduce the cost by using advanced technologies ranging from carbon composite materials to 3-D printing. Virgin Orbit says the cost of a launch should range somewhere around $12 million.<\/p>\n

The system\u2019s main advantage is its versatility and its capacity for quick-turnaround launches. Theoretically, Cosmic Girl can take off from any runway that can accommodate a 747 \u2014 and release its rocket in any direction. \u201cPre-encapsulated\u201d satellites could be loaded and launched in less than a day.<\/p>\n

Cosmic Girl has been going through test flights for months, but it hasn\u2019t yet taken to the air with a rocket attached to its pylon. Today\u2019s fit checks suggest that Virgin Orbit is finally getting close to starting captive-carry tests, with rocket drop tests following soon afterward.<\/p>\n

If all proceeds according to plan, Virgin Orbit\u2019s first launch could take place by the end of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Orbit\u2019s LauncherOne rocket undergoes fit checks underneath a 747 jet that\u2019s been modified to serve as a carrier airplane. (Virgin Orbit Photo via Twitter) What do you get when you cross a Boeing 747 with a rocket launcher? You get something like what you see in the pictures that Virgin Orbit sent out today, showing […]<\/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":[1550,20,1551],"class_list":["post-18300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-launcherone","tag-satellite","tag-virgin-orbit"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18300"}],"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=18300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}