{"id":23385,"date":"2020-05-24T21:25:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T13:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-orbit-dropping-space-bound-launcherone-rocket-from-747-wing-in-first-orbital-flight-test-update\/"},"modified":"2020-05-24T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T13:25:14","slug":"virgin-orbit-dropping-space-bound-launcherone-rocket-from-747-wing-in-first-orbital-flight-test-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-orbit-dropping-space-bound-launcherone-rocket-from-747-wing-in-first-orbital-flight-test-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Orbit dropping space-bound LauncherOne rocket from 747 wing in first orbital flight test [Update]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Update 5\/24\/2020 8:37 p.m. EDT: <\/strong>New launch target between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT<\/em> <em>on Monday, May 25<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Update 5\/25\/2020 3:56 p.m. EDT: <\/strong>Virgin Orbit\u2019s LauncherOne rocket had a clean release from the wing of the Cosmic Girl 747, but the mission terminated shortly after release. Virgin Orbit says the crew and aircraft are safe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A rocket typically lifts off from a launchpad to move a payload from the ground to somewhere in space, but Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Orbit sees another path to sending orbital vehicles and satellites to low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How does dropping a rocket into free fall from an airplane named Cosmic Girl before its engines fire off sound? <\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-1413',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Virgin Orbit planned to complete the first orbital flight test of its LauncherOne rocket today to demonstrate just that, but a \u201cminor sensor issue\u201d has caused Virgin Orbit to scrub the test flight for Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company believes the sensor problem can be resolved with a quick turnaround, however, suggesting a potential Memorial Day orbital flight test for LauncherOne.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-1413\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe completed fueling of our LauncherOne rocket yesterday for our Launch Demo. Everything has been proceeding smoothly: team, aircraft, and rocket are in excellent shape,\u201d Virgin Orbit announced Sunday. \u201cHowever, we have one sensor that is acting up. Out of an abundance of caution, we are offloading fuel to address. This means we are scrubbed for today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCurrently, it appears we\u2019ve got a straightforward path to address this minor sensor issue and recycle quickly. The crew are already hard at work putting that plan into action. We\u2019ll provide an update on the new launch target later today,\u201d the company added.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" alt=\"Site default logo image\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the LauncherOne rocket is ready to go in the coming days, Virgin Orbit\u2019s 747 will take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California to the drop point over the Pacific Ocean. This is the mission overview from Virgin Orbit:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>After reaching the drop point \u2014 approximately 50 miles south of the Channel Islands \u2014 Cosmic Girl will release the two-stage LauncherOne vehicle, which will ignite the NewtonThree engine in free fall for the first time ever. The flight will then continue towards its ultimate target of Low Earth Orbit. <\/p>\n<p>If successful, this flight will mark the first air-launch of a liquid-fueled orbital launch vehicle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Regardless of what day this week the LauncherOne orbital flight test occurs, this week will be host to a busy and ambitious series of launch activities from the United States. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" alt=\"Site default logo image\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA is targeting Wednesday, May 27, at 4:33 p.m. EDT for the launch of SpaceX\u2019s Demo-2 mission as part of its Commercial Crew program. Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will be the first humans to travel to space on SpaceX hardware.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft are already in place at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Teams at NASA and SpaceX completed a dress rehearsal for the historic mission over the weekend. If the launch is forced to be scrubbed for any reason on Wednesday, the next instantaneous launch target is scheduled for Saturday, May 30.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image wp-block-image--obfuscated\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/default-spaceexplored-related-guide.png\" alt=\"Site default logo image\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ll update our coverage for LauncherOne\u2019s orbital flight test as soon as Virgin Orbit releases a new test date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Original headline: Virgin Orbit delays LauncherOne orbital flight test over \u2018minor sensor issue\u2019, new target on Monday<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Update 5\/24\/2020 8:37 p.m. EDT: <\/strong>New launch target between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 26:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/virgin_orbit\/status\/1264716796852006912?s=21<br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1264943815879569408<br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1264947520800608257<br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1264952576958590976<br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1264954736307867650<br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\n<iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=apollozac&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=e30%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1264996373616680961&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspaceexplored.com%2F2020%2F05%2F24%2Fvirgin-orbit-first-launcherone-orbital-flight-test%2F&amp;sessionId=e8a761434fa246f38bb1f1407b30a9839c96cea4&amp;siteScreenName=space_explored&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=500px\" data-tweet-id=\"1264996373616680961\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1783316606331884927=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just watched Cosmic Girl take off! Good luck @Virgin_Orbit \ud83d\ude80 pic.twitter.com\/ERFBSJ1W58<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rachel \u272d (@rachelcowboys) May 25, 2020<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/Virgin_Orbit\/status\/1265001333817356288<br \/>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update 5\/24\/2020 8:37 p.m. EDT: New launch target between 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 25 Update 5\/25\/2020 3:56 p.m. EDT: Virgin Orbit\u2019s LauncherOne rocket had a clean release from the wing of the Cosmic Girl 747, but the mission terminated shortly after release. Virgin Orbit says the crew and aircraft are [&hellip;]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-23385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23385"}],"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=23385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}