LauncherOne, orbital launch vehicle, Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc., Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA

ForVirgin Orbit Launch Demo 2 mission, a LauncherOne rocket launched ELaNa 20, from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, on 17 January 2021, at 19:39 UTC. NASA’s Educational Launch of NanoSatellites (ELaNa 20) mission included 10 CubeSats: PolarCube, MiTEE, CACTUS-1, Q-PACE, TechEdSat-7, RadFXSat-2, EXOCUBE, CAPE-3 and PICS (two CubeSats). The airplane, Cosmic Girl, can take off from and return to multiple launch locations across the Earth.

Credit: Virgin Orbit/Greg Robinson/NASA

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For Virgin Orbit’s “Above the Clouds” mission, the “Cosmic Girl” aircraft took off from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California, on 13 January 2022, at 21:39 UTC (13:39 PST). “Cosmic Girl” traveled off the Pacific coast to about 9.6 km (31500ft) in altitude, then released the LauncherOne rocket that launched several small satellites into orbit, at 22:53 UTC (14:53 PST).

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For Virgin Orbit’s “Start Me Up” mission, the “Cosmic Girl” aircraft took off for the first time from Spaceport Cornwall, United Kingdom, on 9 January 2023, at 22:02 UTC. “Cosmic Girl” traveled off the coast of Ireland to about 9.6 km (31500ft) in altitude, then released the LauncherOne rocket that launched seven payloads: Prometheus-2 (two cubesats), AMAN (Oman’s first satellite), CIRCE (Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction CubeSat Experiment), DOVER, ForgeStar-0, IOD-3 AMBER (aka IOD-3) and STORK-6; at 23:09 UTC.

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