An adventure to launch small satellites using a rocket fired from a converted jumbo jet put 10 tiny ones in orbit for the first time on Sunday, providing a major boost to the startup founded by businessman Richard Branson.
Virgin Orbit’s successful demonstration flight, based in Southern California, almost eight months after an unsuccessful test, places the company in the select group of small satellite launch vendors capable of offering proven flight hardware.
With the proliferation of small satellite manufacturers in the United States and elsewhere, specialized launch suppliers are rushing to meet the demand to explode their products in space. They include Rocket Lab, a United States-New Zealand company that has a proven flight rocket; Firefly Aerospace, based in Texas; and Relativity Space, which plans to launch rockets made in 3D. But only a few of the startups can claim the distinction of exploding out of the atmosphere, a goal that Branson and his team have pursued for years, even when more conventional rocket designs have caught most of the public’s attention.
Virgin Orbit’s new airborne platform, a specially equipped Boeing Co. 747 jet called Cosmic Girl, rose to an altitude of about 6 miles above the Pacific Ocean and launched a slender 70-foot rocket hanging under its left wing. The propellant’s main liquid-fuel engine roared to life, transporting the cluster of cubosats, or miniature satellites, built by universities and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to Earth’s low orbit.
Mr. Branson said the company’s LauncherOne rocket would encourage “a whole new generation of innovators on the way to orbit”. Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said the company was able to demonstrate all elements of its launch system. The next mission is scheduled to begin commercial operations, with customers like the UK Air Force and low-cost communications provider Swarm Technologies Inc.