Brenda Marie Rivers
Virgin Orbit plans to conduct an orbital flight test for its LauncherOne rocket early this year ahead of subsequent regular flights if the test is successful, Space News reported Tuesday.
The company said it will send the launch vehicle to orbit aboard a Boeing 747 plane, nicknamed “Cosmic Girl,†from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
Previously, NASA announced plans to launch 10 cube satellites using LauncherOne as part of the agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative by mid-February. The agency also intends to send another cubesat aboard LauncherOne from the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam during the second quarter of the year.
In July 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration authorized Virgin to conduct LauncherOne flight tests as part of efforts to assess the feasibility of reusable launch vehicles.
Virgin noted that plans are in place to deploy automation techniques to produce more rockets and flight hardware at its Long Beach, Calif. facility.
