A Virgin Branson rocket takes a satellite into orbit

 

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit Rocket Company has successfully placed its first satellites in space.

A total of ten payloads were raised on the same missile, which was launched from under the wing of an old 747 Jumbo businessman.

Sir Richard hopes to tap into the growing market for low-cost small satellites.

Using a jet plane as a launch pad, he should theoretically ship a spacecraft from somewhere in the world.

In fact, of course, its Virgin Orbit system needs to be licensed in the region in which it is used, which is currently only California. But there are very advanced plans to bring the 747 and its missiles to Cornwall in southwest England, for example.

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Sunday's success was a major boost for Sir Richard's team who attempted and failed to launch a missile in May of last year.

Today's sequence of events for #LaunchDemo2 went exactly to plan, from safe execution of our ground ops all the way through successful full duration burns on both engines. To say we're thrilled would be a massive understatement, but 240 characters couldn't do it justice anyway. pic.twitter.com/ZKpoi7hkGN

— Virgin Orbit (@Virgin_Orbit) January 18, 2021

 This effort was thwarted by a breach in the fuel line feeding liquid oxygen to the Newton-3's first-stage engine.

No such problems occurred this time.

The modified 747, named Cosmic Girl, left its base in the Mojave Desert, California at 10:50 PDT (18:50 UTC) to fly over the Pacific Ocean.

Just under 60 minutes later, at an altitude of 35,000 feet (10,500 meters), the aircraft swept hard to the right, dropping as did the 21-meter-long missile that was mounted on its underside.

Within seconds, this booster, called LauncherOne, fired its engine and was climbing into space.

Correct deployment of various spacecraft on board at an altitude of about 500 km was confirmed after two hours.

Virgin Orbit is one of a number of companies that are now racing to meet this demand. Other competitors include the Rocket Lab Group, which is sending its vehicles from a land launch pad in New Zealand. 

But there are dozens of other small rocket startups in various stages of maturity, and some of these companies are planning to operate from the UK as well.

 This phenomenal journey is the fruits of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new era of innovators on their way into orbit.

 I can't wait to see the amazing missions that Dan and the team will unleash to change the world for Hassan."

Will White Horn is president of UKSpace, the trade body that represents Britain's space industry.

 He is also a former chairman of Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard's other space company that hopes to soon begin flying fare commuters above the atmosphere in a rocket plane.

He said the success of Virgin Orbit on Sunday was very important.