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LauncherOne is a two-stage
orbital launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pads, supported by a launch control center and syste ...
developed and flown by
Virgin Orbit Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which launch service provider, provides launch services for small satellites. On January 17, 2021, their ''LauncherOne'' rocket successfully reached orbit for the first time, and successfully dep ...
that began operational flights in 2021, after being in development from 2007 to 2020. It is an air-launched rocket, designed to carry
smallsat A small satellite, miniaturized satellite, or smallsat is a satellite of low mass and size, usually under . While all such satellites can be referred to as "small", different classifications are used to categorize them based on mass. Satellites ca ...
payloads of up to into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), following
air launch Air launching is the practice of releasing a rocket, missile, parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft. The payload craft or missile is often tucked under the wing of the larger mother ship and then "drop ...
from a carrier aircraft at
high altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
. The rocket is carried to the
upper atmosphere Upper atmosphere is a collective term that refers to various layers of the atmosphere of the Earth above the troposphere and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets, and includes: * The mesosphere, which on Earth lies between th ...
on a modified Boeing 747-400, named '' Cosmic Girl'', and released over the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. Initial work on the program was done by
Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...
, another
Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...
subsidiary, before a separate entity —
Virgin Orbit Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which launch service provider, provides launch services for small satellites. On January 17, 2021, their ''LauncherOne'' rocket successfully reached orbit for the first time, and successfully dep ...
— was formed in 2017 to complete development and operate the
launch service provider A launch service provider (LSP) is a type of company which specialises in launching spacecraft. In 2018, the launch services sector accounted for $5.5 billion out of a total $344.5 billion "global space economy". It is responsible for the ordering ...
business as a separate entity from the passenger-carrying Virgin Galactic business. The first successful flight was on 17 January 2021, which delivered a payload of 10
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
s to
low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
(LEO). Two additional launches also successfully made it to orbit. LauncherOne was the first all liquid-fuelled air-launched orbital rocket. A previous test flight was unsuccessful on 25 May 2020, when the rocket failed to reach space. From 2007 to 2015, Virgin had intended LauncherOne to be a somewhat smaller vehicle with a payload to low Earth orbit. In 2015, Virgin modified the vehicle design to better target their intended market, and increased the vehicle payload capacity to launched to a Sun-synchronous orbit, suitable for
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
s and small payloads. Virgin Orbit is targeting a launch price around US$12 million for the rocket.


History

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...
began working on the LauncherOne concept in 2007, and the technical specifications were first described in some detail in late 2009. The LauncherOne configuration was proposed to be an expendable, two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket air-launched from a
White Knight Two The Scaled Composites Model 348 White Knight Two (WK2) is a quadjet cargo aircraft that is used to lift the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft to release altitude. It was developed by Scaled Composites from 2007 to 2010 as the first stage of Tier 1b, a tw ...
carrier aircraft. This would make it a similar configuration to that used by
Orbital Sciences Orbital Sciences Corporation (commonly referred to as Orbital) was an American company specializing in the design, manufacture, and launch of small- and medium- class space and launch vehicle systems for commercial, military and other governmen ...
' Pegasus, or a smaller version of the StratoLaunch air-launched rocket system. By 2012, several
commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
customers had signed early contracts for launches signaling demand-side support for new small commercial-oriented
launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...
s. These included GeoOptics,
Skybox Imaging SkySat is a constellation of sub-meter resolution Earth observation satellites owned by Planet Labs, providing imagery, high-definition video and analytics services. Planet acquired the satellites with their purchase of Terra Bella (formerly S ...
, Spaceflight Services, and
Planetary Resources Planetary Resources, Inc., formerly known as Arkyd Astronautics, was an American company that was formed on 1 January 2009,ARKYD Astronautics Founded http://www.planetaryresources.com/2009/01/draft-arkyd-astronautics-founded/ and reorganized an ...
. Both
Surrey Satellite Technology Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began o ...
and Sierra Nevada Space Systems were at the time reported to be developing
satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus- ...
es "optimized to the design of LauncherOne". In October 2012, Virgin announced that LauncherOne would be designed so that it could place in Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Virgin planned at the time to market the payload delivery to Sun-synchronous orbit for under US$10 million per mission, while the maximum payload for low Earth orbit (LEO) missions would be somewhat larger at . Under plans announced in 2012, the second stage was to be powered by NewtonOne, a thrust engine, and the first stage by a scaled-up version called NewtonTwo, with of thrust. Design and construction of the first engines was completed by 2014. NewtonOne was tested up to a full-duration burn of five minutes. NewtonTwo made several short-duration firings by early 2014. Ultimately, however, neither NewtonOne nor NewtonTwo would be used on LauncherOne. In 2015, Virgin Galactic established a research, development, and manufacturing center for LauncherOne at the
Long Beach Airport Long Beach Airport is a public airport three miles northeast of downtown Long Beach, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is also called Daugherty Field, named after local aviator Earl Daugherty. The airport was an operating base ...
. The company reported in March 2015, that they were on schedule to begin test flights of LauncherOne with its NewtonThree engine by the end of 2016, but they did not achieve that objective. On 25 June 2015, the company signed a contract with OneWeb Ltd. for 39 satellite launches for its
satellite constellation A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system. Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global coverage, such that at any time everywhere on Earth at least one s ...
with an option for an additional 100 launches, but in 2018 OneWeb canceled all but four, prompting a lawsuit from Virgin Orbit. OneWeb filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020. News reports in September 2015 indicated that the heavier payload of was to be achieved by longer fuel tanks and use of the recently qualified NewtonThree engine, but this also meant that the Virgin-developed carrier aircraft
White Knight Two The Scaled Composites Model 348 White Knight Two (WK2) is a quadjet cargo aircraft that is used to lift the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft to release altitude. It was developed by Scaled Composites from 2007 to 2010 as the first stage of Tier 1b, a tw ...
would no longer be able to lift the rocket to launch altitude, so in December 2015, Virgin announced a change to the carrier plane for LauncherOne to carry the heavier payload. The carrier aircraft subsequently was changed to a used Boeing 747-400, ''Cosmic Girl'', previously operated by Virgin Galactic's sister company, Virgin Atlantic, and purchased outright by Virgin Group from
Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
upon the expiration of that airframe's lease. The 747 will allow a larger LauncherOne to carry the heavier payloads. The modification work on the company's 747 was expected to be completed in 2016, to be followed by orbital test launches of the rocket in 2017. It was further announced in December 2015 that the revised LauncherOne would utilize the larger NewtonThree rocket engine on the booster stage, with the NewtonFour powering the
second stage A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket ''stages'', each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A ''tandem'' or ''serial'' stage is mounted on top of another stage; a ''parallel'' stage i ...
. NewtonThree was to be a -thrust engine, and began hot-fire testing by March 2015. The NewtonFour engine would power the second stage. NewtonThree generate of thrust while NewtonFour deliver to the second stage and is capable of multiple restarts. On 2 March 2017, Virgin Galactic announced that its 200-member LauncherOne team was being spun off into a new company called
Virgin Orbit Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which launch service provider, provides launch services for small satellites. On January 17, 2021, their ''LauncherOne'' rocket successfully reached orbit for the first time, and successfully dep ...
. A subsidiary company of Virgin Orbit called
Vox Space Vox (Latin for 'voice') may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters * Vox (DC Universe character), Mal Duncan * Vox, several characters in the anime series '' Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne'' * Gleeman Vox, from the ''Ratch ...
was created to carry out business which require strict security requirements. , the company planned to fly approximately twice a month by 2020. In September 2017, the first test flights of LauncherOne were delayed to 2018. By June 2018, the Virgin Orbit captive carry
flight test Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...
ing campaign for LauncherOne, including a planned
drop test A drop test is a method of testing the in-flight characteristics of prototype or experimental aircraft and spacecraft by raising the test vehicle to a specific altitude and then releasing it. Test flights involving powered aircraft, particularly ...
of an unfueled rocket, was licensed to begin in July 2018, and could run for up to six months. In the event, no LauncherOne test flights occurred in 2018 and were delayed further, to December 2019, with only the carrier aircraft beginning to fly in 2018. The first three test flights of ''Cosmic Girl'', including the pylon but not the rocket, happened on 23, 25 and 27 August 2018. A high-speed taxi test, with a rocket mounted beneath the aircraft, took place in early November 2018. The aircraft flew its first test flight with both pylon and rocket attached on 18 November 2018. On 17 March 2022 Polish Space Agency and Virgin Orbit signed an agreement to use LauncherOne as means to send satelites into orbit, with its first launch from Poland planned for 2023.


Flights

The maiden flight of LauncherOne took place on 25 May 2020. The flight failed a few seconds after the ignition of the rocket due to a premature shutdown of the first stage engine, caused by a break in a propellant feed line, and the rocket did not reach space. The launch failure was attributed to a failure of a high-pressure
liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...
fuel line A fuel line is a hose or pipe used to transfer fuel from one point in a vehicle to another. The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines a fuel line as "all hoses or tubing designed to contain liquid fuel or fuel vapor. This includes ...
in the NewtonThree engine. Due to the failure, oxygen was no longer supplied to the engine and the flight was terminated. The issue with the fuel line was addressed by strengthening the broken components. The second launch took place on 17 January 2021, and was the first to successfully reach orbit. The rocket deployed 10
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
s for NASA's
Educational Launch of Nanosatellites Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) is an initiative created by NASA to attract and retain students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. The program is managed by the Launch Services Program (LSP) at NASA ...
mission (ELaNa 20). ''Cosmic Girl'' took off from
Mojave Air and Space Port The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a s ...
in
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
at 18:38 UTC. The aircraft launched the LauncherOne rocket at 19:39 UTC. The launch occurred at the altitude of . On 17 January 2021, both NewtonThree and NewtonFour performed as expected. During launch, NewtonFour fired twice; once to inject the second stage and the payloads into a transfer orbit, and again to circularize the orbit.


Design

LauncherOne is a two-stage air-launched vehicle. The rocket has a diameter of for the first stage and for the second stage and payload fairing.Virgin Orbit LauncherOne Data Sheet
Space Launch Report
In October 2019, the company announced plans to develop a three-stage variant that would be capable of launching to the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
, to
Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...
, or to
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...
.Virgin Orbit to add extra rocket stage to LauncherOne for interplanetary missions
Caleb Henry, ''SpaceNews'' – 24 October 2019.


Engines

LauncherOne will be a two-stage air-launched vehicle using Newton engines,
RP-1 RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as rocket fuel. RP-1 provides a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen (LH2), but is cheaper, is s ...
/
LOX Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an appli ...
liquid rocket engine A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse (''I''sp). This allows the volume of the propellant ta ...
s. The second stage was to be powered by NewtonOne, a thrust engine. It was originally intended that the first stage will be powered by a scaled-up design of the same basic technology as NewtonOne, called NewtonTwo, with of thrust. Both engines have been designed, and first articles have been built. NewtonOne was tested up to a full-duration burn of five minutes. NewtonTwo made several short-duration firings by early 2014. NewtonThree is a -thrust engine, and began hot-fire tests . More recent reports suggest that a NewtonThree will power the first stage of LauncherOne.


2015 redesign: new engines, larger payloads, new carrier aircraft

News reports in September 2015 indicate that the higher payload is to be achieved by longer fuel tanks and the NewtonThree engine but this will mean that White Knight Two will no longer be able to lift it to launch altitude. The rocket will be carried to launch altitude by a Boeing 747. The revised LauncherOne will utilize both the Newton 3 and Newton 4 rocket engines. In December 2015, Virgin announced a change to the carrier plane for LauncherOne, as well as a substantially-larger design point for the rocket itself. The carrier aircraft will now be a
Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
, which will in turn allow a larger LauncherOne to carry heavier payloads than previously planned. The modification work on the particular Boeing 747 that Virgin has purchased is expected to be completed in 2016, to be followed by Orbital test launches of the rocket in 2017.


Intended usage

LauncherOne is designed to launch a payload to a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), suitable for
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...
s and small payloads. Virgin Orbit has also announced the ability of LauncherOne to send payloads into heliocentric orbit for flybys of Mars, Venus or asteroids.


Launch sites

Virgin Orbit integrate payloads at their headquarters in
Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...
. LauncherOne is launched from its ''Cosmic Girl'' Boeing 747-400 carrier, attached to a pylon on the aircraft's left wing, and released over the ocean at a location depending on the desired orbital inclination. This process avoids typical delays for ground launches due to weather and upper-level winds. William Pomerantz of Virgin Orbit has stated that any airport that can support a Boeing 747 may be used, subject to local legislation. , the carrier plane has always lifted off from the
Mojave Air and Space Port The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a s ...
in California,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. The company also has plans to use other airports such as
Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, and
Newquay Airport Cornwall Airport Newquay is the main commercial airport for Cornwall, United Kingdom, located at Mawgan in Pydar, northeast of the town of Newquay on Cornwall's north coast. Its runway was operated by RAF St Mawgan before 2008, and is now o ...
in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
,
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. Other proposed launch sites include
Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keāhole is the busiest airport on the Island of Hawaii. It is located in Kalaoa CDP, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, near the town of Kailua-Kona. The airport serves leeward (western) Hawai ...
in
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
,
José Aponte de la Torre Airport José Aponte de la Torre Airport is a public use airport owned by Puerto Rico Ports Authority and located from Ceiba, a coastal town in Puerto Rico. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which ca ...
in
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
,
Oita Airport Oita often refers to: *Ōita Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan *Ōita (city), the capital of the prefecture Oita or Ōita may also refer to: Places * Ōita District, Ōita, a former district in Ōita Prefecture, Japan *Ōita Stadium, a multi-use stadiu ...
in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, Andersen Air Force Base in
Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
and
Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport is an airport in Wellcamp, west from the CBD of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. It was known as Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport until November 2017. The airport and an associated aviation and business park is the ...
in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.


Past launches


Future launches


Launch statistics


Launch outcomes


Launch sites


See also

*
NOTS-EV-1 Pilot The NOTS-EV-1 Pilot, better known as NOTSNIK (pronounced nots''nik'' a play on "sputnik") was an expendable launch system and anti-satellite weapon developed by the United States Navy's Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, United States Naval Or ...
* Pegasus (rocket) * StratoLaunch


References


External links

* *
Release and ignition of LauncherOne on its first orbital flight
video, 17 January 2021. {{Virgin Galactic Microsatellite launch vehicles Space launch vehicles Air launch to orbit Scaled Composites White Knight Two Virgin Galactic Virgin Orbit Rocket launches in 2020 Rocket launches in 2021