Watch the Launch

Additional Media

Above the Clouds Live Stream | Virgin Orbit

In our third commercial launch, Virgin Orbit is pleased to provide livestream coverage of pre-flight operations and launch commentary throughout the day. Joi...

Above the Clouds

The U.S. Department of Defense is launching several Research and Development (R&D) satellites from multiple government agencies that are experiments in space-based communications and in-space navigation, as well as a university payload sponsored by NASA. This launch, also known as STP-27VPB, was awa...

Introducing Our Next Mission: Above the Clouds

Coming off successful back-to-back launches, the Virgin Orbit team has settled into a steady flight preparation rhythm with LauncherOne. The fully assembled rocket that will carry our next customers’ satellites to space arrived early Monday morning at the Mojave Air and Space Port that serves as all...

Above the Clouds

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Communications

Low Earth Orbit Mojave Air and Space Port Air launch to orbit

Mission to a 500 km circular orbit inclined at 45 degrees carrying eight R&D satellites from US government agencies with communications and navigation experiments as well as two Earth-observation nanosatellites from Polish company SatRevolution.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 13, 2022, 11:57 p.m.

Launch success.


SwGustav • Jan. 13, 2022, 4:37 p.m.

Updating the window


Jay • Jan. 11, 2022, 11:33 p.m.

Now targeting January 13.


LauncherOne

Family: Launcher
Configuration: One

LauncherOne is a two stage orbital launch vehicle developed by Virgin Orbit since 2007. It is an air launch to orbit rocket, designed to launch "smallsat" payloads of 300 kilograms (660 lb) into a Sun-synchronous orbit, following air launch from a carrier aircraft at high altitude.

Specifications
  • Stages
    2
  • Length
    16.0 m
  • Diameter
    1.6 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    1.3 m
  • Launch Mass
    30 T
  • Thrust
    327 kN
Family
  • Name
    LauncherOne
  • Family
    Launcher
  • Variant
    One
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    LauncherOne
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $12000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    500 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    300 kg

Virgin Orbit

Circle Image
President: Dan Hart Founded: 2017 Successes: 4 Failures: 2 Pending: 0

Agency Type: Commercial

Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which plans to provide launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 to develop the air-launched LauncherOne rocket, launched from Cosmic Girl, which had previously been a project of Virgin Galactic. Based in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit has more than 300 employees led by president Dan Hart, a former vice president of government satellite systems at Boeing. Virgin Orbit focuses on small satellite launch, which is one of three capabilities being focused on by Virgin Galactic. These capabilities are: human spaceflight operations, small satellite launch, and advanced aerospace design, manufacturing, and test

INFO WIKI

Related News

Spaceflight Now

Virgin Orbit celebrates third successful launch in a row

Virgin Orbit delivered seven small CubeSats for NASA, the U.S. military, Spire, and the Polish company SatRevolution into orbit Thursday with its air-launched rocket after release from a jumbo jet off the coast of California.

SpaceNews

Virgin Orbit launches seven cubesats on third operational mission

Virgin Orbit placed seven cubesats for three customers into orbit Jan. 13 on the third consecutive successful operational flight of its LauncherOne air-launch system.

NASA Spaceflight

Virgin Orbit launches mission STP-27VPB “Above the Clouds”

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne and its 747 carrier aircraft “Cosmic Girl” are scheduled to launch the US Defense Department’s STP-27VPB mission along with three commercial satellites. The launch is scheduled for Thursday, January 13th at appro…

Air launch to orbit

Mojave Air and Space Port


Falcon 9
Success
4 days, 5 hours ago
Starlink Group 2-10
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Chollima 1
Failure
4 days, 14 hours ago
Malligyong-1
Malligyong-1 Pad - Sohae Satellite Launching Station, Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province, Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Malligyong-1 (meaning "Telescope-1") is a North Korean satellite officially declared to be for military reconnaissance purposes. It failed to reach o…


Long March 2
Success
5 days, 10 hours ago
Shenzhou 16
Launch Area 4 (SLS-1 / 921) - Jiuquan, People's Republic of China

Fifth crewed flight to the Chinese space station.


GSLV Mk II
Success
6 days, 6 hours ago
IRNSS-1J (NVS-01)
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

This is a replacement satellite for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The constellation will provide India with an alternative to GPS …


Falcon 9
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
BADR-8
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral, FL, USA

Geostationary communications satellite built by Airbus Defense and Space and based on the Eurostar Neo platform for Arabsat.


Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
Kondor-FKA No.1
Cosmodrome Site 1S - Vostochny Cosmodrome, Siberia, Russian Federation

The Kondor-FKA is a small civilian radar Earth observation satellite designed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a civilian counterpart to the Kondor-E sate…


Electron
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
TROPICS-3
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Onenui Station, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Last two operational (TROPICS-06 & TROPICS-07) satellites for NASA's Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a…


SpaceShipTwo
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
VSS Unity 25
Spaceport America - Air launch to Suborbital flight

Virgin Galactic return to space mission ahead of the first commercial flight.


Nuri
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
NEXTSat-2 & SNIPE
LC-2 - Naro Space Center, South Korea

Third flight of the KSLV-II "Nuri" launch vehicle, carrying NEXTSat-2 as well as SNIPE A through D.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
1 week, 3 days ago
Progress MS-23 (84P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.