Virgin Orbit, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, successfully launched a satellite into orbit with a rocket on board a Boeing 747 for the first Time on Jan. 17.
Virgin Orbit, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, has achieved a feat by carrying and launching a rocket with a satellite on board a Boeing 747, successfully sending the satellite into orbit.
According to media reports, on January 17 at 10:50 a.m. Western time, a modified Boeing 747, nicknamed “Cosmic Girl,” carried a LauncherOne rocket from the Mojave Desert in California and flew into the Pacific Ocean, firing the 21-meter rocket into space while cruising at an altitude of 10,500 meters.
On January 17, Virgin Orbit, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, launched its first rocket from a Boeing 747 and successfully placed a satellite into orbit.
The LauncherOne rocket, which weighs only about thirty tons when fueled, is designed to launch small artificial satellites. Once the rocket is in space orbit, it releases 10 small satellites, which are cube satellites built by researchers at NASA and several U.S. universities.
A few hours later, the command center confirmed that the satellites had deployed correctly, and Virgin Orbit Executive Dan Hart said that a new way to space had just emerged and that this success was a testament to the talent, accuracy and ingenuity of the Virgin Orbit rocket team.
On Jan. 17, Virgin Orbit, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, launched its first rocket from a Boeing 747 and successfully placed a satellite in orbit.
At the same time, Virgin Orbit tweeted that the rocket had reached Earth orbit and that all satellites had been successfully deployed to their target orbits.
This makes Virgin Orbit the third U.S. commercial rocket company to reach orbit, after SpaceX and Rocket Lab, and the only one to accomplish this feat with an “airplane + rocket” approach.
The company test-launched the air-launched rocket in May last year, but a ruptured rocket propellant line prevented it from supplying liquid nitrogen to the thrusters, causing the launch to end in failure.
On January 17, Virgin Orbit, a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, launched its first rocket using a Boeing 747 and successfully placed a satellite into orbit.
Virgin founder Richard Branson hopes to use this to capture the low-cost small satellite market, and the aircraft as a launch platform. Airborne launch technology requires less weather and timing for the launch site, allowing for more flexible arrangements, while saving fuel and costs, making it cheaper than traditional fixed-site launches, and eliminating the need for long preparation and launch pad construction.
With the increasing demand for commercial small satellite launches into near-Earth orbit, the success of this mission symbolizes Virgin Orbit’s mastery of rocket air launch technology and is expected to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Virgin Orbit, one of two rocket companies founded by Branson, made history in 2018 when Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit’s sister space company, launched a spacecraft carrying two humans to the edge of space from beneath a custom-built aircraft.
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