West Virginiaâs first spacecraft, Simulation to Flight-1 (or STF-1), launched into orbit on Dec. 16, 2018, on the first-ever NASA Venture Class Launch Services mission via the Rocket Lab Electron rocket.
The launch occurred from New Zealandâs Mahia Peninsula and STF-1 was one of 10 smallsats deployed as part of NASAâs Educational Launch of Nanosatellites mission. First contact was achieved a few days later.
âI donât think words can express the amount of happiness and sense of accomplishment that came across the team during the first successful communications,â NASA computer engineer Justin Morris said as he reflected to the early days of the mission.
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Ten NASA-sponsored CubeSats are preparing to fly on the agencyâs next Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) mission, making this the first payload carried by Virgin Orbitâs 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 Dec.19, 2020, Launch Demo 2 flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. âThis 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,â Hector Viera, NASAâs contracting officer representative for Virgin Orbit. âThis launch is going to open the doors for them (Virgin Orbit) and for NASA, and thatâs a good thing.â
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