Virgin Orbit's modified Boeing 747 took off from Mojave Air
& Space Port in the Southern California desert, flew out over the Pacific
Ocean and dropped the LauncherOne rocket from its left wing.
The 70-foot-long (21.3-meter) booster ignited at an altitude
of about 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) and hurtled skyward. The company later
confirmed that all of the satellites were successfully deployed into the proper
orbit.
“Another fantastic day for the Virgin Orbit team, and a big
step forward for our customers,” the company tweeted.
The payload included satellites for the US Defense
Department, the Polish company SatRevolution and the international company
Spire Global.
It was Virgin Orbit's third launch carrying satellites for
customers. Two previous launches carried multiple satellites into orbit in
January and June 2021. The company's first launch, a demonstration flight,
failed in May 2020.
Virgin Orbit, founded in 2017 by British billionaire Richard
Branson, went public last month. The company is targeting the market for
launching small satellites. It touts the mobility of its air-launch system
compared to the limitations of fixed launch sites.
“The tremendous thing about using a 747 is we can put them
into any orbit from anywhere in the world,” Branson said from the British
Virgin Islands during the company's launch webcast.
“There's only I think a couple of handfuls of countries in
the world that have the capability of sending satellites to space from their
own countries and now 480 countries can use Virgin Orbit,” he said. “You just
need to ring us up.”
The company plans six launches this year, including two for
the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force that will originate from Cornwall in
southwestern England. RAF test pilot Mathew “Stanny” Stannard flew the 747 from
the main pilot seat on Thursday.
“This is going to be just a banner year for us,” Chief
Operating Officer Tony Gingiss said in a preflight briefing this week.
Gingiss said there has been continuous improvement
flight-over-flight.
“I think we're seeing not only the kind of rigor we expect
but just really getting highly confident in our processes,” he said.
Thursday's mission was dubbed “Above the Clouds,” a title
taken from a track on hip hop duo Gang Starr's album “Moment of Truth,” which
was released by Virgin Records in 1998.
Branson noted during his interview that his family got
COVID-19 over Christmas.
“Fortunately we were vaccinated and boosted and therefore none of us got it badly,” he said.
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