Virgin Orbit Just Attached to Rocket to Its Cosmic Girl Mothership for the 1st Time

Virgin Orbit Just Attached to Rocket to Its Cosmic Girl Mothership for the 1st Time

Virgin Orbit Just Attached to Rocket to Its Cosmic Girl Mothership for the 1st Time





Virgin Orbit Just Attached to Rocket to Its Cosmic Girl Mothership for the 1st Time


Virgin Orbit has launched its satellite launching system for the first time.



	

	The California-based company - part of the Virgin group of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's - mated a LauncherOne rocket with its transport plane, a modified 747 aircraft called Cosmic girl, at the Long Beach Airport on Wednesday (October 24).

		"The team was conducting the rocket integration check with Cosmic Girl to verify [that] "Mechanics, electrical, software and dynamics work together for the first time," Branson wrote in a blog on October 26. "It's an incredibly exciting time for us, as Virgin Orbit's first test flights are getting closer and closer."

The[[Gallery: LauncherOne Rocket by Virgin Orbit for satellite missions]





						


LauncherOne moves to the position of attachment to Cosmic Girl.

            						    Credit: Virgin Orbit 


		The test flight campaign will begin with the "captive transport" missions, in which LauncherOne will remain attached to Cosmic Girl from takeoff to landing. The next step will be the drop tests, which will allow engineers to study the rocket launch mechanism and the LauncherOne flight through Earth's atmosphere, representatives of Virgin Orbit said.





						


The Virgin Orbit LauncherOne rocket was coupled to its aircraft, a modified 747 known as Cosmic Girl, for the first time on October 24, 2018, at Long Beach Airport.

            						    Credit: Virgin Orbit 


		Branson anticipates moving through these milestones rather quickly; in the publication of today's blog, predicted that LauncherOne would reach the orbit "early next year". (However, that orbital pioneer will not be the same rocket that connected with Cosmic Girl this week, the last reinforcement flight will be a drop test, Virgin Orbit representatives said.)



		The 70-foot-long LauncherOne (21 meters) can deliver satellites weighing up to 1,100 pounds. (500 kilograms) to a variety of low terrestrial orbits. Cosmic Girl will take the booster to a height of about 35,000 feet (10,700 m), at which time LauncherOne will separate and make its way into space.





						


A close-up of the junction point of LauncherOne.

            						    Credit: Virgin Orbit 


		This air-launch strategy has the advantage of flexibility, Branson said.

		Cosmic Girl "can fly thousands of miles in any direction 24 hours in advance to deliver to the correct orbit," Branson wrote in his blog. "Currently, people have to wait between 18 and 24 months for manufacturing and a launch on the ground."

		The rockets have been launched into the air before. The Pegasus rocket, which was developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. (now part of Northrop Grumman), has more than 40 flights under its belt. And there is more to come. Pegasus will be used by Stratolaunch Systems, the satellite lofting company established in 2011 by the late Paul Allen.





						


The founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, in Cosmic Girl, the modified 747 that will carry the LauncherOne rocket high.

            						    Credit: Virgin Orbit 


		Virgin Orbit's sister company, Virgin Galactic, will also be launched from the air. The Virgin Galactic six-passenger spacer, SpaceShipTwo, will be launched into the suborbital space after being transported by an airplane known as WhiteKnightTwo.



	Mike Wall's book on the search for extraterrestrial life. "Out there, "will be published on November 13 by Grand Central Publishing. Follow it on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook. Originally published in Space.com.

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