Virgin Orbit is making the final preparations for its Straight Up mission as it seeks to take on the likes of SpaceX and Rocket Lab for small-satellite deployments.
Straight Up will be Virgin Orbit’s first mission since January 2022 and the fourth overall. The target orbit for this week’s mission approximately 310 miles above the Earth’s surface at 45 degrees inclination, an orbit that the company says no other system has reached from the West Coast. While SpaceX and Rocket Lab use a conventional ground launch to send their rockets and payloads to space, Virgin Orbit attaches its 70-foot-long LauncherOne booster to a modified Boeing 747 for an air launch. Once the aircraft is well clear of the clouds at an altitude of around 30,000 feet, the pilots release the booster, which then fires up before carrying its payload to space.
Virgin Orbit was founded by Richard Branson in 2017. Following extensive testing, the first commercial flight took place in 2021. Missions to date have delivered a range of commercial, civil, national security, and international satellites into orbit.
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