The American private company Virgin Orbit launched its LauncherOne launch vehicle into orbit for the first time. This is in a statement from the organization on Twitter.
During the launch, nine CubeSat satellites were launched into orbit. “We are proud to say that LauncherOne has completed its first space mission, bringing satellites into space for our NASA friends,” Virgin Orbit said. Later, the head of the US space agency congratulated the team on the great achievement.
The 20-meter rocket was launched in the Southern California region.
In May 2020, Virgin Orbit lost a rocket during a demonstration test. Shortly after the successful launch, an “anomaly” occurred and testing was terminated. Then a competitor to Virgin Orbit, the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, reacted to the failure. He recalled that before the successful launch of his Falcon 1 rocket, three tests ended in failure.
Virgin Orbit has developed an aerial launch technology, the rocket is launched from a Boeing 747 aircraft called Cosmic Girl. LauncherOne is designed to launch satellites weighing up to 500 kilograms into low-earth orbit. Engineers estimate that this method of launching satellites will be much cheaper than traditional methods.