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Virgin Orbit launched its first rocket to successfully reach Earth orbit on Sunday.
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The rocket was launched from a modified Boeing 747 and carried 10 small satellites for NASA.
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“A new door to space has just opened!” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said.
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Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit launched its first rocket to successfully reach Earth orbit on Sunday, eight months after its previous failed attempt.
The next step is to use the rocket for commercial services, the company said.
Rather than launching the rocket from a traditional launch pad, Virgin Orbit used an “aerial launch” under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
The rocket put 10 small NASA-sponsored satellites into orbit.
The rocket had “For Eve” printed on the side in tribute to Eve Branson, the mother of Richard Branson, who died earlier this month.
The converted jumbo jet, named Cosmic Girl, launched the LauncherOne rocket over the Pacific Ocean, just under an hour after departing from Mojave Air and Spaceport in California.
The 70-foot double-stage rocket then ignited its engine and reached low Earth orbit just before 12:00 p.m. PST.
“All the team members who are not on mission control right now are completely crazy”, Virgin Orbit tweeted. “Even the folks on communications really try not to sound too excited.”
Both Gen Jay Raymond, the chief of space operations for the US Space Force, and Elon musk, CEO of rival aerospace company SpaceX, tweeted his congratulations.
Read more: The space industry will grow by more than $ 1 trillion over the next decade, according to Bank of America. Here are the 14 stocks best positioned to take advantage of the boom.
Cosmic Girl had already flown more than 8,000 flights, carrying around 2.5 million passengers, since it was first purchased by Virgin Atlantic in 2001. The jet and its crew landed safely in Mojave later that afternoon.
The 10 satellites, or CubeSats, launched into orbit were part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative, and nearly all of them were designed, built and tested by American universities.
“A new door to space has just opened!” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said in a press release.
“Even in the face of a global pandemic, we have maintained a laser focus on fully demonstrating every element of this revolutionary launch system.
“Virgin Orbit has achieved something that many thought was impossible,” Branson added, calling it “the culmination of many years of hard work.”
After the successful launch of the test, the company will officially switch to sales for its next assignment, he said. Customers who have already booked launches with Virgin Orbit include the US Space Force, UK Royal Air Force and Swarm Technologies.
The company’s first launch test in May 2020 successfully dropped a rocket from a jumbo jet and ignited it, but its launch failed after an on-board computer lost connection.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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