California-based Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket finally made it to space on its second attempted powered test flight this Sunday. And that's not all:the rocket has also successfully deployed ten small satellites.
While all companies have chosen to launch their rockets vertically, Virgin Orbit is aiming for a completely different type of launch called "airborne". Basically, the rocket is hung under an airplane transformed into a launcher (in this case, a Boeing 747-400). It is then jettisoned at an altitude of around 10,000 meters, then fires its engines in an effort to reach low Earth orbit. According to Virgin, this launch strategy would increase flexibility and responsiveness compared to traditional rockets .
Last May, Virgin Orbit missed the launch of its first rocket, called LauncherOne (21 meters long), from Mojave airport in the California desert, in the United States. The company's "Cosmic Girl" aircraft had indeed taken off and released its load as planned. Unfortunately, it failed to reach Earth orbit. A statement released by the company at the time referred to an "anomaly" resulting in the shutdown of the NewtonThree engine powering the rocket's first stage.
However, analyzes have finally figured out why this launch went wrong. The engineers have since made corrections in anticipation of a second attempt made this Sunday, January 17. And this launch, unlike the first one, went as planned.
As part of this test, pilots Kelly Latimer and Todd Ericson took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 10:50 a.m. local time, hovering above of the Pacific Ocean.
About an hour after takeoff, at an altitude of approximately 10,700 meters , the LauncherOne rocket separated from the plane and then triggered the NewtonThree engine of its first stage for about three minutes, head into space. During the previous attempt, a propellant line had ruptured just after this engine was fired. However, that was not the case this time.
The rocket's upper stage then separated successfully, before firing its NewtonFour engine as planned, then the rocket slipped into orbit around our planet before releasing, 45 minutes later, ten tiny satellites (cubesats) provided by eight American university groups and the NASA Ames Research Center.
Virgin Orbit, which just "checked all the boxes" of this test, is now fully operational to begin its first commercial flights. We know that the US Space Force, the British Royal Air Force and a few private companies have already booked missions.
Ultimately, Virgin Orbit intends to claim a significant share of the growing market for small satellite launches currently dominated by Rocket Lab, whose Electron booster has been operational since 2018.
