Virgin Orbit schedules its first orbital test launch this weekend – Spaceflight Now:
The first orbital test flight of Virgin Orbit's privately-developed air-launched rocket is scheduled as soon as Sunday off the coast of Southern California, the company said Wednesday.
Designed to deliver small satellites into orbit, the LauncherOne vehicle has a four-hour window Sunday opening at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT; 1700 GMT) to head into space after release from the belly of Virgin Orbit's Boeing 747 carrier aircraft. A backup launch opportunity is available at the same time Monday.
"We will only proceed with the mission if all conditions for launch are nominal," Virgin Orbit said in a press kit for the demonstration flight. "Although air-launched systems like ours are less vulnerable to bad weather than fixed ground-launch systems, we'll be watching the weather closely and being cautious for this maiden flight."
Piloted by Kelly Latimer, Virgin Orbit's chief test pilot, the 747 carrier aircraft will line up for its launch run west of San Nicolas Island, which is owned by the U.S. Navy. The targeted drop point is located roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) west-southwest of Long Beach.
Latimer will command the airplane onto climb angle of more than 25 degrees. The nearly 30-ton rocket will be released from a pylon under the 747's left wing during the pull-up maneuver at an altitude of around 35,000 feet (nearly 10,700 meters).
Around five seconds after release, the rocket's kerosene-fueled NewtonThree engine will ignite with 73,500 pounds of thrust to begin climbing into orbit.
"The instant our NewtonThree engine ignites, we will have done something no one has ever done before — lighting an orbital-class, liquid-fueled, horizontally-launched vehicle in flight," Virgin Orbit said.
"We'll continue the mission for as long as we can," the company said. "The longer LauncherOne flies, the more data we'll be able to collect. Should we defy the historical odds and become one of those exceedingly rare teams to complete a mission on first attempt, we will deploy a test payload into an orbit, take our data, and then quickly de-orbit so as not to clutter the heavens."
If everything goes as Virgin Orbit hopes, the company intends to restart the second stage's NewtonFour engine once in space, validating the rocket's ability to deliver payloads to different orbits on the same mission.
The mission profile for the first LauncherOne flight lasts 32 minutes from the time of the rocket's release from the "Cosmic Girl" jumbo jet until separation of its payload in orbit.
Unfortunately for space enthusiasts,
But the company does not plan to provide a live public webcast for the LauncherOne demonstration flight. Instead, Virgin Orbit will release updates on Twitter as the mission progresses.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 23 2020, @12:41PM (1 child)
The smallsat launch market is crowded as is, despite Rocket Lab grabbing most of the business (and SpaceX will do Starlink+rideshares soon). There is going to be a culling.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/rocket-report-busy-weekend-on-the-space-coast-sls-rocket-launch-slips/ [arstechnica.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday May 23 2020, @12:51PM
Smallsat launch services feel pricing pressure [spacenews.com]
Will the small launch market survive COVID-19? The Pentagon has concerns [c4isrnet.com]
SpaceX rideshare program putting downward pressure on prices [spacenews.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]