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Virgin Orbit announces Start Me Up mission from UK | Virgin

The countdown to Cornwall is on for Virgin Orbit as it gets ready for its historic launch from the UK, Start Me Up.

Start Me Up

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Earth Science

Low Earth Orbit Spaceport Cornwall Air launch to orbit

7 payloads for government and private customers. This mission is the first launch from the United Kingdom.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 9, 2023, 11:57 p.m.

Launch failed.


SwGustav • Jan. 9, 2023, 11:11 p.m.

Drop and ignition confirmed


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 9, 2023, 10:21 p.m.

Updated T-0 post-take off


SwGustav • Jan. 9, 2023, 9:18 p.m.

Coverage live


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 7, 2023, 5:51 p.m.

Updated NET rocket dropping & ignition time.


LauncherOne

Family:
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
    30.0 T
  • Thrust
    327.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    LauncherOne
  • Family
  • Variant
    One
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    LauncherOne
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $12000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    500.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    300.0 kg

Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit

(VO)

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

Agency Type:

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

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The U.K. is funding nearly half the cost of replacing the government-backed cubesat that British maritime surveillance venture Horizon Technologies lost in January in Virgin Orbit’s final launch attempt before bankruptcy.

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Spaceport Cornwall, which provided the runway for Virgin Orbit’s failed launch from the U.K. in January, opened a new operations facility April 27 to attract more businesses in the wake of its flagship customer’s bankruptcy.

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Air launch to orbit

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