[ad_1] Virgin Orbit’s first launch demonstration flight has ended in a very unceremonious fashion. The spaceflight firm reported a “clean release” of LauncherOne from the Cosmic Girl host aircraft, but the rocket’s journey “terminated shortly into the flight.” In other words, LauncherOne didn’t have a realistic chance of reaching orbit. The company had warned that […]
Category: virgin orbit
Virgin Orbit’s first launch demo takes place this weekend
[ad_1] Virgin Orbit is finally ready to try a proper launch demo. The spaceflight outfit now expects the launch demo mission to take place on either May 24th or May 25th between 1PM and 5PM Eastern each day. If there’s enough of a launch window, the Cosmic Girl carrier aircraft will release LauncherOne over the […]
Virgin Orbit plans to send cubesats to Mars as early as 2022
[ad_1] Virgin Orbit is a spinoff of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and is dedicated to low-cost smallsat projects. This new Virgin Orbit endeavor was reportedly inspired by NASA’s recent InSight mission, which successfully sent two cubesats to Mars. Now, the company believes it can send its own similar spacecraft (as light as 110 pounds) into […]
Virgin Orbit will launch small satellites for the UK military
[ad_1] The unique feature of the Virgin Orbit program is how quickly a launch can be arranged. Typically, a launch takes years of planning and can only take place from certain sites which access particular orbits. This means that access to a given orbit can never be guaranteed on short notice. However, Virgin believes it […]
Virgin Orbit’s first rocket drop test was a success
[ad_1] Company chief Dan Hart told CNBC in an interview that he hoped the first full-fledged launch would take place “before the end of the summer.” A first commercial launch, meanwhile, could come roughly eight to 10 weeks after that. Virgin already has six rockets in progress in its factory, and thinks it can produce […]
Virgin Orbit preps the LauncherOne rocket for its first drop test
[ad_1] Ever wonder what #LauncherOne looks like from Cosmic Girl’s perspective? Here’s some more footage from our most recent captive carry flight test, featuring never-before-seen angles of our flying launchpad. pic.twitter.com/IqMNi5mK2x — Virgin Orbit (@Virgin_Orbit) June 7, 2019 In fact, Virgin Orbit will release a fully built and fully loaded LauncherOne during that flight. The […]
Three teams will compete for millions in DARPA’s rocket launch challenge
[ad_1] Sometime in early 2020, Vector Launch, VOX Space and a third, anonymous competitor will attempt to blast their rockets into low-Earth orbit, twice in a matter of weeks. They won’t know where they’re going to launch from, the orbit they’ll travel or the payload they’re expected to carry until shortly before the mission. And […]