Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit failed Monday in its first test launch of a new rocket carried aloft by a Boeing 747 and released over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.
The inaugural launch had appeared to be going well until moments after the rocket was dropped from beneath the left wing of the jumbo jet dubbed Cosmic Girl.
The highly modified jumbo jet took off from Mojave Air and Space Por t in the desert north of Los Angeles and flew out just beyond the Channel Islands, where the drop occurred. "The team's already hard at work digging into the data, and we're eager to hop into our next big test ASAP," the company tweeted. "Thankfully, instead of waiting until after our 1st flight to tackle our 2nd rocket, we've already completed a ton of work to get us back in the air and keep moving forward."
While other companies are developing rockets for the small satellite market and builders of big rockets like SpaceX can carry them into orbit in a ride-share arrangement with large satellites, Virgin Orbit's air launch system based on the aviation industry's workhorse 747 is intended to put a satellite up when and where a customer needs it, Hart said.Virgin Orbit says it has dozens of missions on the books for customers including the U.S. Space Force and the Royal Air Force.
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