Virgin Orbit launched a rocket from a specially modified Boeing 747 on Wednesday, clearing the way for the company to launch a similar rocket into space later this year.
A spinoff of Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit plans to launch small satellites into low-Earth orbit from a plane instead of from the ground.
Wednesday’s test flight from Edwards Air Force Base was the culmination of nearly five years of work. The Virgin Orbit team had to heavily outfit its 747 — dubbed Cosmic Girl — to hold the LauncherOne rocket under its left wing.
https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/1137134593444798465
“We started flying with just Cosmic Girl alone, then added the pylon, and finally the rocket underwing. Since last November, we’ve flown nearly a dozen times with a heavyweight rocket,” the company tweeted just before the successful rocket test.
The air launch essentially simulated much of what would actually happen if a rocket was sent into space. The Virgin Orbit team filled their LauncherOne rocket with water and antifreeze to make it as heavy as a real rocket, according to The Verge. Chief Test Pilot Kelly Latimer flew the jet to 35,000 feet and dropped the rocket to the Mojave Desert below. Without any major problems, the equipment seems primed for a test launch into space.
https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/1148988591407656960
The rocket was loaded with sensors that track whether everything was performing as expected. Between that and videos, the Virgin Orbit team should have a pretty good idea of how an actual rocket would perform during a space launch.
“The rocket will be telling us where it is, any motions that it’s feeling, and how it’s flying those first few seconds, which are very important for an air launch rocket especially,” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart told The Verge.
The successful test should also be a boon to Virgin Galactic, which also plans to use the air launch technique to send tourists to space in a “spaceplane.”
“Cosmic Girl is back to straight and level flight, and #LauncherOne looked fantastic in the air today,” Virgin Orbit tweeted shortly after the test drop.
https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/1148999490109526016
Once the air launch system has been adequately tested, Virgin Orbit plans to start launching actual satellites into space on behalf of a number of clients.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.