Virgin Orbit, the sibling company to Virgin Galactic is planning to run the first test launch of its rocket today. Virgin Orbit is a small satellite launcher company and after testing its vehicles for the past 6 years is now ready to send a rocket to its orbit.
Boeing 747: The Cosmic Girl
The rocket that is ready to send is called LauncherOne and possesses the capacity to launch small to medium payloads to space. These payloads will be the size of the washing machines. Unlike most of the rockets, the LauncherOne will take off from underneath the Boeing 747 airplane’s wing. The Boeing 747 (popularly known as Cosmic Girl) will take the LauncherOne up to 35,000 feet.
In a press conference, the CEO of Virgin Orbit, Dan Hart said, “We’re a very unique system in that we are air-launched. And what that gives us is incredible flexibility. In fact, we have mobility; we can fly to space from any place that can host a 747, which is almost any place, and we can go to any orbit.”
Several ignitions tests have been performed on the LauncherOne’s engine and all the hardware of the rocket. The engine of LauncherOne is named ‘Newton Three’.
Experiments were done before the Rocket Launch
All kinds of experiments have been done by the Virgin Orbit’s main pilot, Kelly Latimer, and his team. The Cosmic Girl has also been experimented with and they have also done a dummy launch with LauncherOne’s dummy as they dropped it from the plane.
The launch was expected to take place in the last summers but got delay due to some extra work that was needed to be done and this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the launch got further delay. Dan Hart, the CEO of Virgin Orbit said: “We did add some tests along the way as we looked at the overall verification program. And so, we adjusted accordingly. The internal focus of the team was really to move through a methodical development process.”
The LauncherOne has been treated like a real customer’s satellite as it was packed with a dummy payload. It was handled with care and the cleaning process was done likewise. Special projects’ Vice President at Virgin Orbit, Will Pomerantz said: “In itself, it is not a terribly exciting thing. You know, it is essentially a nice-looking inert mass that allowed us to practice all those things we really wanted to practice.”
The launch will take place at 1 PM ET on Monday after going through all the weather criteria and the launch window will be for four hours. The Pilot Kelly Latimer will take off with LauncherOne from the Mojave Air and Space Port. Once the engine will ignite, the LauncherOne’s tour to space will begin.
