Virgin Orbit to try to send satellites into space for the first time

Virgin Orbit – the sister company of billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism group Virgin Galactic – will attempt a second test of its small satellite launch rocket later today, months after it failed to reach the ‘orbit on a first attempt. It will also be the first time that the company has attempted to launch functional satellites into space on behalf of NASA.

Sometime after 1 p.m. ET, Virgin Orbit’s custom Boeing 747 will take off from Virgin Galactic spaceport in the Mojave Desert and climb to 35,000 feet with the satellite launch rocket attached to its wing. Once it reaches a predetermined location, the rocket is supposed to fall and ignite, taking the small satellites on board for the rest of the way orbiting Earth. Virgin Orbit says the launch window will last until 5 p.m. ET.

Virgin orbit tweeted Sunday morning, he is aiming for takeoff at 10:30 a.m. PT (1:30 p.m. ET).

There is no live broadcast of the test, although the company is considering tweet updates throughout the flight. It will make the photos and videos available sometime after the end of the test.

Virgin Orbit has spent years developing this method of airborne rocket launching, and has performed increasingly complex flight tests since 2018. But the first comprehensive test of the company’s rocket launch capabilities in May of the year last did not go as planned. The aircraft mounted correctly, the rocket fell, and the main engine ignited. But a problem in the liquid oxygen fuel line prevented the rocket from reaching orbit.

Dan Hart, CEO of Virgin Orbit, said on a conference call earlier this month that the company has made changes to those thruster lines and performed “huge tests” since May, despite the pandemic.

“Watching [Virgin Orbit] seizing the opportunity and delving into the details and driving the maturation of the system, and doing it in a pandemic environment, is really amazing to watch, ”Hart said.

Aside from the technical fixes, another difference between the previous test and this one is that Virgin Orbit will be attempting for the first time to deliver real commercial payloads to one customer: NASA. The space agency commissioned Virgin Orbit to transport 10 different small satellites for various universities. Each will perform a variety of missions, from cleaning up space debris to practicing inspecting and maintaining other spacecraft, to weather observations. A full list is available on the Virgin Orbit website.

This mission was supposed to take place in December, but was delayed because some members of the Virgin Orbit launch team had to go into quarantine. Hart said Virgin Orbit had “done a tremendous amount to keep the team safe” before today’s launch. A big part of this is having people work remotely, but for those who need to be on site, Hart said Virgin Orbit enforces social distancing, requires employees to use PPE, sanitizes spaces and installs air purifiers. “Every tool that you can imagine that exists in the industry, we’ve applied it, but we have an enthusiastic, focused team,” he said.

The launch attempt was postponed earlier this month, although it has slipped out of today’s window several times now. The company tweeted on Saturday that the hardware is “in very good condition” and the weather looks favorable.

Virgin Orbit’s approach to launching satellites is quite different from that of SpaceX or the other major launch providers that NASA and others typically use. But it’s a business the company says will help soften the burgeoning small satellite market. When launching from a plane into the air, the Virgin Orbit system does not need such a large rocket, nor as much fuel, which saves costs. The company argues that this is a potentially more flexible system, as it theoretically makes satellite launches possible from anywhere a 747 can take off and land.

(These reasons may explain why Virgin Orbit also signed a contract with the Department of Defense. Virgin Orbit also wants to launch missions to Mars.)

But first, Virgin Orbit has to prove that the system works and that the business can be profitable. Donors like Branson and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala have supported it so far through development. The company is now seeking up to $ 200 million in new funding after spending hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the airborne launch system that it will test again today.

Hart stressed on the call that this was a test flight and the company would be “happy to get the data” generated along the way so that they could continue to develop and refine the system. launch. He also said the Virgin Orbit team was “aware that there is a risk in whether we will reach final orbit.”

But Hart said Virgin Orbit was “working hard and going over all the details and making sure we have the best possible shot to get into orbit” given that there are real satellites on board this time around. This work included assistance from an investigative team comprised of people from NASA’s launch partner, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Air Force, and industry professionals.

“We really took our engineering team in with a fresh look to make sure that basically we weren’t drinking our own bath water,” Hart said.

Updated January 17, 11:30 a.m.ET: Adds updated take-off time of 1:30 p.m. ET and a new tweet from Virgin Orbit