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A company aiming to launch small satellites using a rocket fired from a converted jumbo jet deployed 10 tiny ones into orbit for the first time on Sunday, giving a boost to the startup founded by the entrepreneur Richard Branson.
Southern California-based Virgin Orbit’s successful demonstration flight nearly eight months after a failed test places the company among the select group of small-satellite launch vendors capable of delivering flight-proven hardware.
With the proliferation of manufacturers of small satellites across the United States and other regions, specialist launch suppliers are rushing to meet the demand to detonate their products in space. They include Rocket Lab, a New Zealand American company that owns a flight proven rocket; Texas-based Firefly Aerospace; and Relativity Space, which plans to launch rockets manufactured in 3-D. But only a few startups can claim the distinction of exploding out of the atmosphere, a goal Mr. Branson and his team have pursued for years, even as more conventional rocket designs have garnered most of the public’s attention. .
Virgin Orbit’s new airborne platform, a specially equipped Boeing 747 named Cosmic Girl, soared to an altitude of about 6 miles above the Pacific Ocean and launched a slender 70-foot rocket suspended under its wing left. The propellant’s main liquid-fueled engine came to life, transporting the group of cubesats, or miniature satellites, built by universities and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, into low Earth orbit.
Mr Branson said the company’s LauncherOne rocket would encourage “a whole new generation of innovators on the path to orbit.” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said the company has successfully demonstrated every element of its launch system. The next mission is expected to begin commercial operations, with clients such as the British Air Force and low-cost communications provider Swarm Technologies Inc.
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