Lyra Martin Science 07.02.2022 05:Jul AM EDT

Virgin Orbit Rocket Carries 7 U.S. Defense Satellites in a Launch

The launch was Virgin Orbit's fourth commercial and first night launch overall that was planned to take place on Wednesday night, June 29, but was postponed.

A Virgin Orbit Rocket Bringing Defense Department Satellites Launched From Boeing 747

Friday night (July 1), a Virgin Orbit rocket carrying satellites for the U.S. Defense Department was launched from a customized Boeing 747 flying off the coast of Southern California.

From Mojave Air and Space Port in the Mojave Desert, the modified jumbo aircraft took off, launching the rocket over the Pacific Ocean to northwest Los Angeles.

The U.S. Space Force purchased the launch for a test program run by the Defense Department. The seven payloads will carry out numerous experiments.

It was Virgin Orbit's first night launch and fourth commercial launch overall. The launch was supposed to happen on Wednesday night, but that effort was canceled owing to a propellant temperature problem.

Paula Abdul's 1988 Virgin Records first studio album 'Forever Your Girl' included the famous song 'Straight Up,' which inspired Virgin Orbit to call their mission 'Straight Up.'

Richard Branson, a British billionaire, established Virgin Orbit in 2017. It presently performs launches from the Mojave airfield but has plans for worldwide missions. Its headquarters are in Long Beach, California.

The business will launch two satellites later this year on a mission from Cornwall, England's Newquay Airport. The satellites will test radio signal monitoring in a cooperative effort between the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office and the U.K. Ministry of Defense.

Virgin Orbit's First launch for this year Took Off

On Jan. 13, Virgin Orbit completed the third straight operational flight of their LauncherOne air-launch system, launching seven CubeSats for three clients into orbit.

At 4:39 p.m. (E.T.), Cosmic Girl, a Boeing 747 acting as LauncherOne's launch vehicle, blasted off from California's Mojave Air and Space Port. At about 5:52 p.m. (E.T.), it launched the rocket, which soared to low Earth orbit at the height of around 500 kilometers. After the rocket's discharge, Virgin Orbit reported that all seven of the satellites had been deployed.

Three clients' seven smallsats were transported on the launch. Four of the satellites were acquired under the Space Test Program of the Defense Department. Two three-unit CubeSats are part of the Pathfinder for Autonomous Navigation (PAN) payload to test a rendezvous and docking mechanism.

Additionally, the NASA Ames Research Center has funded the three-unit CubeSat Technology Education Satellite (TechEdSat) 13 to test a number of cutting-edge technologies. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Globalstar Evaluation and Risk-Reduction Satellite (GEARRS) 3 is a three-unit CubeSat designed to test communications with the Globalstar satellite network utilizing an external patch antenna.

The Air Force Research Laboratory also developed the three-unit CubeSat known as the Globalstar Evaluation and Risk-Reduction Satellite (GEARRS) 3 to test communications with the Globalstar spacecraft network utilizing a patch antenna on the satellite's exterior.

Moreover, two of the satellites were from SatRevolution, a Polish smallsat developer. STORK-3 is part of its constellation of imaging satellites, while SteamSat-2 will test water-fueled thrusters developed by a British company, SteamJet Space Systems. The seventh satellite is from Spire Global, designed with the Austrian Space Forum and Findus Venture GmbH to measure the orbital debris environment.

In December 2021, Virgin Orbit said it added the Spire CubeSat on short notice to demonstrate its responsive launch capabilities. This is the first of Virgin Orbit's six planned launches for 2022. Two will launch from Spaceport Cornwall in England, while the other eight will go from Mojave.