Cosmic Girl has departed from Mojave Air and Space Port. Cosmic Girl has been flying for Virgin since she was acquired by Virgin Atlantic in 2001.
VO photo from twitter
Photo of Cosmic Girl and her rocket passenger crossing the Santa Barbara coast outbound.
Cosmic Girl has arrived at her "racetrack" off San Diego. Tracking stations around the world are preparing to track the VO satellites, should the launch succeed.
Terminal count autosequence initiated. The computers are now conducting the countdown. Less than 15 min from launch.
Flightradar 24 shows that Cosmic Girl has been joined by a chase plane.
Cosmic Girl made one complete circle of the racetrack, then pulled up sharply on its second pass and released the rocket.
The rocket ignited well.
They got a full duration burn.
Successful stage separation.
Successful stage two ignition.
Rocket is in space. Fairing jettison.
SECO, second stage engine cutoff.
Tracking stations verify that the second stage is indeed in orbit.
Good day for Virgin Orbit!
Rocket is coasting now in anticipation of a another second stage burn to circularize the orbit. Then the payloads will be released.
https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/...1086739456
Cosmic Girl and her humans are safely back on the ground at Mojave.
And the circularization burn was successful and the payloads have been deployed into orbits within specified tolerances.
Apart from some minor glitches that didn't really impact the mission (rumors about a problem with roll-control) the day was a rousing success for Virgin Orbit!
VO photo from twitter
Photo of Cosmic Girl and her rocket passenger crossing the Santa Barbara coast outbound.
Cosmic Girl has arrived at her "racetrack" off San Diego. Tracking stations around the world are preparing to track the VO satellites, should the launch succeed.
Terminal count autosequence initiated. The computers are now conducting the countdown. Less than 15 min from launch.
Flightradar 24 shows that Cosmic Girl has been joined by a chase plane.
Cosmic Girl made one complete circle of the racetrack, then pulled up sharply on its second pass and released the rocket.
The rocket ignited well.
They got a full duration burn.
Successful stage separation.
Successful stage two ignition.
Rocket is in space. Fairing jettison.
SECO, second stage engine cutoff.
Tracking stations verify that the second stage is indeed in orbit.
Good day for Virgin Orbit!
Rocket is coasting now in anticipation of a another second stage burn to circularize the orbit. Then the payloads will be released.
https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/...1086739456
Cosmic Girl and her humans are safely back on the ground at Mojave.
And the circularization burn was successful and the payloads have been deployed into orbits within specified tolerances.
Apart from some minor glitches that didn't really impact the mission (rumors about a problem with roll-control) the day was a rousing success for Virgin Orbit!