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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Virgin Galactic has spun off a new company dedicated to launching small satellites. Virgin Orbit​ will join Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company as the third company to fall under the Virgin Group's Galactic Ventures commercial space portfolio.
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