Photo courtesy of Virgin Orbit/Greg Robinson
ExoCube 2 is among 10 small satellites flying aboard Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket
–A Cal Poly San Luis Obispo CubeSat will ride on Wednesday Jan. 13 aboard Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket on its second attempt to reach space.
The rocket includes nine other NASA-sponsored small satellites on the space agency’s next Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission. This is the first payload carried by Virgin Orbit’s rocket that will be carried aloft under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 to an altitude of 35,000 feet, released and fired into orbit.
The mothership jet, named Cosmic Girl, will take off from Mojave Air and Space Port, which will release the two-stage LauncherOne off the coast of Southern California. The launch window is 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pacific Time, “with additional windows throughout January if needed,” the company announced.