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LOS ANGELES – Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit hit space on Sunday, eight months after the failure of the first demonstration flight of his air-launch rocket system, the company said.
A 70-foot-long LauncherOne rocket was launched under the wing of a Boeing 747 carrier plane off the coast of Southern California, ignited moments later, and soared into space.
The double-decker rocket carried a group of very small satellites known as CubeSats, developed and built as part of a NASA educational program involving US universities.
The launch took place after the Boeing 747-400 took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles and flew over the Pacific Ocean to a drop point beyond the Channel Islands .
“According to telemetry, LauncherOne has reached orbit!” Virgin Orbit later tweeted. “All of the team members who are not on mission control right now are completely nuts.”
The top stage of the rocket had to coast for a period of time and then relight to circularize the orbit before deploying the satellites.
The developments of the flight were announced on social networks. The launch was not broadcast live.
Virgin Orbit, based in Long Beach, Calif., Is part of a wave of companies targeting the market to launch increasingly high-performance small satellites, which can range in sizes comparable to a toaster on a domestic refrigerator.
Competitor Rocket Lab, also based in Long Beach, deployed 96 payloads in 17 launches of its Electron rocket from a site in New Zealand. Another of its rockets was approaching launch on Sunday.
Virgin Orbit touts the flexibility of its ability to begin missions using airports around the world.
Virgin Orbit attempted its first demo launch in May 2020.
The rocket was released and ignited but only flew briefly under power before it stopped pushing. The lost payload was only a test satellite.
The company later said an investigation found there was a breach in a high-pressure line carrying cryogenic liquid oxygen to the first-stage combustion chamber.
Virgin Orbit is separate from Virgin Galactic SPCE,
the company founded by Branson to transport passengers on suborbital jumps in which they will experience the thrills and sights of space flight.
Virgin Galactic plans to begin commercial operations this year in southern New Mexico.
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