An adventure to launch small satellites with a rocket launched from a converted jumbo jet deployed 10 small ones into orbit for the first time on Sunday, which was a big boost for the launch founded by businessman Richard Branson.
Virgin Orbit’s successful Southern California-based demonstration flight, nearly eight months after a failed test, makes the company the select group of small satellite launch providers capable of offering proven hardware in flight.
With the proliferation of small satellite manufacturers in the United States and other regions, launch vendors are rushing to meet the demand to exploit their products in space. They include Rocket Lab, a U.S. and New Zealand company that has a rocket tested in flight; Firefly Aerospace, based in Texas; and Relativity Space, which plans to launch 3D-made rockets. But only a few of the startups can claim the distinction of flying out of the atmosphere, a goal that Mr. Branson and his team have been chasing for years, even when the most conventional rocket designs caught most of the audience’s attention.
Virgin Orbit’s new airborne platform, a Boeing Co. aircraft. 747 specially equipped named Cosmic Girl, climbed to an altitude of approximately 6 miles over the Pacific Ocean and launched a slender 70-foot rocket launched under the left wing. The booster’s main liquid fuel engine burned to life, transporting the cluster of miniature cubes or satellites, built by universities and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to a low Earth orbit. .
Branson said the company’s LauncherOne rocket would animate “a whole new generation of innovators on the road to orbit.” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said the company was able to demonstrate all the elements of its launch system. The next mission is scheduled to begin commercial operations, with customers such as the UK Air Force and low-cost communications provider Swarm Technologies Inc.