LauncherOne reaches orbit on second attempt with NASA CubeSats
January 17, 2021
After an eight month stand down to resolve issues revealed during the first mission of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, the company made their second orbital launch attempt on Sunday, January 17. The air-launched rocket successfully carried ten CubeSats to their target orbit for NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program.
The cosmic girl aircraft took off at 10:38 PST (18:38 UTC). Launch occurred at 11:39 PST (19:39 UTC), a little under halfway into the four hour launch window that opened at 10:00 PST (18:00 UTC). Backup launch dates were available later in January.
The mission began at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where the Cosmic Girl Boeing 747-400 carrier aircraft departed for the drop zone over the Pacific Ocean. This is the same location that hosted the first LauncherOne mission in May 2020, which failed shortly into first stage flight.
California-based Virgin Orbit made its first successful flight to orbit Sunday using a rocket launched from a plane over the Pacific Ocean, announcing later that the satellites aboard were released successfully.
Virgin Orbit targets Sunday for LauncherOne mission from California
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Virgin Orbit s LauncherOne rocket, like one shown here in a 2019 test over the Pacific Ociean, is scheduled to launch science experiments for NASA and several universities on Sunday. Photo by Greg Robinson/courtesy of Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit s LauncherOne rocket, like one shown here in a 2019 test in California, is scheduled to launch science experiments for NASA and several universities on Sunday. Photo by Greg Robinson/courtesy of Virgin Orbit
Technicians prepare a small satellite, MiTEE, for launch in California on Sunday after it was built and shipped by the University of Michigan. Photo courtesy of Virgin Orbit
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.
By Danielle Sempsrott
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
MOJAVE, Calif. Ten NASA-sponsored CubeSats are preparing to fly on the agency’s next Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission, making this the first payload carried by Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket.
With the small satellites safely secured inside the payload fairing, and the fairing mated to the rocket, Virgin Orbit is gearing up for ELaNa 20, the Launch Demo 2 flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
“This initiative actually enables the market for future CubeSats or future missions needing a ride to space by providing different approaches and different options to better meet spacecraft needs,” Hector Viera, NASA’s contracting officer representative for Virgin Orbit. “This launch is going to open the doors for them (Virgin Orbit) and for NASA, and that’s a good thing.”