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Tubular Bells, Part One Livestream | Virgin Orbit

Following the team’s successful orbital launch demonstration in January, “Tubular Bells: Part One” marks the next big step in Virgin Orbit’s commercial servi...

Tubular Bells, Part One

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Overview

Destination: Low Earth Orbit
Mission: Dedicated Rideshare

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

The mission includes three cubesats for US Department of Defense which are launched as a part of the DoS Space Test Program (STP); the Netherland's first military satellite, a cubesat called BRIK II; and two optical satellites, STORK-4 and STORK-5, for SatRevolution's STORK constellation. The mission name, "Tubular Bells, Part One", references the first music album released by Virgin Records label in the 1970s. The label was established by Virgin Orbit CEO Richard Branson.

Updates

spacevogel • June 30, 2021, 5:33 p.m.

Launch success confirmed


Nosu • June 30, 2021, 2:48 p.m.

LauncherOne has separated from Cosmic Girl and ignited its first stage.


Nosu • June 30, 2021, 8:46 a.m.

Launch window 14:00-16:00 UTC based on takeoff time.


Cosmic_Penguin • June 28, 2021, 2:58 a.m.

NOTAMs issued.


Cosmic_Penguin • June 24, 2021, 12:53 a.m.

New launch date.


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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Air launch to orbit

Mojave Air and Space Port


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