While Virgin Orbit has been devoting some of its resources to help build ventilators for California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority during the Covid-19 pandemic, the company also has big plans for this weekend with the first demonstration of its LauncherOne rocket.
LauncherOne is Virgin’s take on an orbital launch system. Rather than blasting off from the ground like SpaceX, Rocket Lab or other competitors, founder Richard Branson’s concept involves attaching a small rocket to the belly of a modified 747, flying it above 75 percent of Earth’s atmosphere and launching it from there.
Last July, Virgin Orbit completed a test run in which a rocket was successfully dropped from Cosmic Girl, a 747 plucked from the Virgin Atlantic fleet, but Launcher One’s NewtonThree first stage engine was not ignited.
The company plans to do a full demonstration launch Saturday, May 23 during a four-hour window that begins at 10 a.m. PT, with backup windows on Sunday and Monday. The plan is for Cosmic Girl to take off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California and release the LauncherOne rocket over the Pacific Ocean. After a few seconds of free fall, the rocket’s engine will ignite in mid-air for the first time and head towards low earth orbit.
There won’t be a livestream of the demonstration, but CNET will keep you posted on how it goes and post footage as soon as it’s over.
The launch comes at a busy time for Virgin Orbit, which has dedicated some of its resources to producing ventilators for use in California during the coronavirus pandemic.
If Saturday’s demonstration launch goes well, the company will begin prepping for its first paid launch, a collaboration between NASA and universities to launch small satellites. This launch could happen as soon as June 29.
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