Straight Up
LauncherOne
Virgin Orbit
Mission
Straight Up
Type: Government/Top Secret
Launch Cost: $12,000,000
Launch contracted by the U.S. Space Force for the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP), with payloads provided by the DoD Space Test Program (STP) as part of the Space Force’s STP-28A mission.
It will carry seven satellites from multiple government agencies that are experiments intended to demonstrate novel modular satellite bus, space domain awareness, and adaptive radio frequency technologies. The target orbit is approximately 500 km above the Earth’s surface at 45 degrees inclination.
Location
Mojave Air and Space Port
Air launch to orbit
50 rockets have launched from Air launch to orbit.
Rocket
LauncherOne – Virgin Orbit
Family: Launcher
Length: 16 m
Diameter: 1.6 m
Launch Mass: 30 T
Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 500 kg
The LauncherOne was manufactured by Virgin Orbit with the first launch on 2020-05-25. LauncherOne has 4 successful launches and 1 failed launches with a total of 5 launches. LauncherOne is a two stage orbital launch vehicle developed by Virgin Orbit since 2007. It is an air launch to orbit rocket, designed to launch “smallsat” payloads of 300 kilograms (660 lb) into a Sun-synchronous orbit, following air launch from a carrier aircraft at high altitude.
Agency
Virgin Orbit
Type: Commercial
Abbreviation: VO
Administration: President: Dan Hart
Founded: 2017
Launchers: 141
Country: USA
Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which plans to provide launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 to develop the air-launched LauncherOne rocket, launched from Cosmic Girl, which had previously been a project of Virgin Galactic. Based in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit has more than 300 employees led by president Dan Hart, a former vice president of government satellite systems at Boeing.
Virgin Orbit focuses on small satellite launch, which is one of three capabilities being focused on by Virgin Galactic. These capabilities are: human spaceflight operations, small satellite launch, and advanced aerospace design, manufacturing, and test
