California-based Virgin Orbit marked a major milestone with its LauncherOne rocket's second powered test flight this Sunday, successfully reaching space and deploying ten small satellites into orbit.
Breaking from traditional vertical launches, Virgin Orbit pioneered an air-launch system. The 21-meter LauncherOne hangs beneath a modified Boeing 747-400 named "Cosmic Girl," released at around 10,000 meters altitude to fire its engines toward low Earth orbit. This method, as Virgin Orbit experts note, delivers superior flexibility and responsiveness over ground-based rockets.
The first attempt last May from Mojave Air and Space Port in California's desert ended short of orbit due to a first-stage NewtonThree engine anomaly after release. Engineers pinpointed the issue—a propellant line rupture—and implemented fixes for this retry on January 17.
This time, success: Pilots Kelly Latimer and Todd Ericson lifted off from Mojave at 10:50 a.m. local time, flying over the Pacific Ocean.
About an hour later, at roughly 10,700 meters, LauncherOne separated and ignited its first-stage NewtonThree engine for three minutes, avoiding the prior failure.
The upper stage detached flawlessly, fired its NewtonFour engine, entered orbit, and 45 minutes post-release, deployed ten CubeSats from eight U.S. university teams and NASA Ames Research Center.
Mission objectives fully met, Virgin Orbit is now primed for commercial launches, with bookings from the U.S. Space Force, Royal Air Force, and private firms.
Positioned to claim market share in the booming small satellite sector—led by Rocket Lab's Electron since 2018—Virgin Orbit leverages proven air-launch expertise for reliable access to space.
