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VIRGIN ORBIT ANNOUNCES NEXT LAUNCH, DUBBED ‘STRAIGHT UP’

LauncherOne has arrived in Mojave Air and Space Port in preparation for upcoming launch. LONG BEACH, CA — MAY 09, 2022 — Virgin Orbit (Nasdaq: VORB) has entered flight preparation mode for its forthcoming launch, Straight Up, that will support the United States Space Force’s STP-28A mission. After ...

Straight Up

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Government/Top Secret

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

Launch contracted by the U.S. Space Force for the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), with payloads provided by the DoD Space Test Program (STP) as part of the Space Force’s STP-28A mission. It will carry seven satellites from multiple government agencies that are experiments intended to demonstrate novel modular satellite bus, space domain awareness, and adaptive radio frequency technologies. The target orbit is approximately 500 km above the Earth’s surface at 45 degrees inclination.

Updates

Cosmic_Penguin • July 2, 2022, 7:55 a.m.

Launch success


Cosmic_Penguin • July 2, 2022, 6:54 a.m.

Release, 1st stage ignition


Cosmic_Penguin • July 2, 2022, 5:18 a.m.

Take-off ~05:40 UTC -> Drop-off ~06:40 UTC


SwGustav • July 1, 2022, 7:38 p.m.

Setting GO


Cosmic_Penguin • June 30, 2022, 4:33 a.m.

Scrubbed due to propellant temperature issues


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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