Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is poised to make history today as it sends satellite-launching craft on first test flight to space
- LauncherOne, used to deliver small satellites into orbit, will take off on Sunday
- If successful it will be the first time this system launches something into space
- Virgin Orbit’s vice-president is confident his team’s project will be a success
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is preparing to make history on Sunday with the first orbital test flight of its LauncherOne vehicle.
The vehicle is supposed to deliver small satellites into orbit and is set to take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 5.30pm BST.
Sunday will be the vehicle’s first test flight to see that everything works well before starting to operate properly.
The plan is for the company’s modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft to release LauncherOne (pictured) from under its wings in mid-air before igniting its own rocket
The plan is for the company’s modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft to release LauncherOne from under its wings in mid-air before igniting its own rocket.
If LauncherOne reaches an altitude of 50 miles it be the first time this system has successfully launched something into space.
Virgin Orbit’s vice-president of special projects Will Pomerantz said that, although he was aware that ‘about half’ of an aerospace company’s first full flights fail, he was confident in the work that the team behind the project had done to get to this moment.
Pictured: Virgin’s Richard Branson in 2019
Mr Pomerantz said: ‘You essentially get to a point where you have looked under every rock and verify that there’s nothing more for you to do to verify that the system is ready.’
‘That’s what we have done.
‘We’ve gone through an enormous amount of tests, we’ve essentially done everything that we can think of that we should do, including fill the rocket up with cryogenics and fuel and pressure and fly it out to the drop.’