Virgin Orbit, Sir Richard Branson’s privately owned satellite-launching company, has successfully launched its first rocket into space.
The LauncherOne rocket reached orbit overnight and deployed a payload of 10 small ‘cubesat’ satellites, sponsored by Nasa.
Virgin Orbit’s 21m long rocket took-off from California's Mojave Air and Space Port attached to the underside of a Boeing 747 carrier plane, nicknamed Cosmic Girl.
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After being released from the plane above the Pacific ocean, the rocket’s engines quickly fired launched after being carried into space.
This stage was a first for the company as LauncherOne failed to fire on its first orbital attempt in May last year.
Today's sequence of events for #LaunchDemo2 went exactly to plan, from safe execution of our ground ops all the way through successful full duration burns on both engines. To say we're thrilled would be a massive understatement, but 240 characters couldn't do it justice anyway. pic.twitter.com/ZKpoi7hkGN
— Virgin Orbit (@Virgin_Orbit) January 18, 2021
Having achieved their tasks, both the first stage and the upper stage of the rocket are expendable, with the upper stage remaining in orbit for a short while before ultimately burning up as it re-enters the atmosphere.
"A new gateway to space has just sprung open,” said Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart.
"That LauncherOne was able to successfully reach orbit today is a testament to this team's talent, precision, drive, and ingenuity."
Branson said the completed demonstration will “unleash a whole new generation of innovators on the path to orbit”.
Virgin Orbit said it will begin providing commercial services in its next mission, with launches booked by customers including the UK Air Force and the US Space Force, as well as commercial customers such as Italy’s Sitael, Swarm Technologies in the US and Denmark’s GomSpace. It also has a strategic alliance with Australia's Sky and Space Global Ltd (ASX:SAS) related to launch services and mutual reseller agreements to support future growth.
Our favorite rocket is orbiting our favorite planet! No sweeter feeling. pic.twitter.com/bIPmUMW316
— Virgin Orbit (@Virgin_Orbit) January 18, 2021
"The company's next few rockets are already well into integration at its Long Beach manufacturing facility," the company said, with further flights anticipated at some point in 2021.
In future, with plans for similar takeoffs spots at a US Air Force base in Guam, a commercial airport in Cornwall, UK, and another commercial airport in Oita, Japan, the company says Virgin Orbit’s service will be more “agile and affordable” for organisations that want to get their satellites into space without waiting in the queue at “crowded spaceports”.
“We are looking to move much faster than our industry’s average in terms of ramping up our flight rate, and we’ve put together a truly state of the art rocket factory that is sized around building a dozen or more rockets per year,” a spokesman told Proactive.