Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit has followed on from its first trip to space back in January, with a mission that now marks the beginning of its commercial satellite launch service after successfully carrying seven CubeSats into orbit on Wednesday.

It was the second time's a charm as Virgin Orbit's airdropped LauncherOne rocket put 10 NASA payloads into orbit on the second attempt in less than eight months, sending 10 NASA CubeSat payloads into low-Earth orbit under the Launch Services Program.

Virgin Orbit is preparing its pilots, Cosmic Girl mothership and LauncherOne rocket for a second attempt at orbital flight, today announcing that its Launch Demo 2 mission will take place a week before Christmas.

Virgin Orbit has come up short on its first attempt to reach orbit today after the mission was terminated soon after ignition of its LauncherOne rocket, with the team now working through the data and gearing up for its next attempt.

Virgin Orbit continues to edge closer to its objective of firing satellites into space form an airborne 747, this time completing an end-to-end launch rehearsal designed to put all of its systems through their paces.

Virgin Orbit has revealed plans for the first commercial satellite mission to Mars, where a new breed of tiny probes could help study the Red Planet.

Virgin Orbit is developing a launch system to carry satellites into space using a rocket mounted to the wing of a modified 747. The team has today ticked off what it calls a significant milestone, carrying said rocket into the air and releasing it over the Californian desert for the first time.

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl took to the skies over Southern California on November 18, 2018 carrying a 70-ft-long (21-m) rocket for the first time. The specially modified 747-400 aircraft with the LauncherOne booster under its port wing took off from Victorville, California on an 80-min test flight.

Virgin Orbit is now one step closer to firing satellites into space using rockets launched from the wing of a 747 after successfully integrating its LauncherOne rocket into its Cosmic Girl mothership ahead of the first test flights.

Virgin Orbit is edging ever closer to its goal of firing rockets into space from an airborne 747, with the pylons that will carry its two-stage orbital launch vehicle, LauncherOne, to altitude now firmly fixed to the wing of its Cosmic Girl Mothership.

The Virgin Galactic spin-off, Virgin Orbit, has announced that it will start launching satellites into orbit from Spaceport Cornwall at Cornwall Airport Newquay in the UK by 2021, using rockets dropped from a modified Boeing 747.

Firing rockets from beneath the wings of an airborne 747 isn't the most conventional way to get satellites into space, but Virgin spinoff company Virgin Orbit has been awarded a license for its maiden attempt to do just that, with hopes of beginning commercial services before the year is out.