Virgin Orbit plane launches four US
military satellites into space
WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit successfully delivered
four U.S. military satellites to low Earth orbit on June 30 as part of the
company’s second successful launch of the LauncherOne rocket.
While most space launches start with the rocket
standing vertically on a pad, VOX Space, a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit, is one
of a growing number of launch providers that takes its rockets up into the sky
via aircraft before launching them midair.
For this latest launch, Virgin Orbit’s 747 carrier
aircraft Cosmic Girl took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California,
flying out over the Pacific Ocean before finally releasing the rocket. The
rocket then ignited and propelled itself to about 500 kilometers above the
Earth’s surface, where it delivered the satellites.
This was LauncherOne’s second successful launch,
the first being a demonstration launch in January. This mission was a
rideshare, carrying four U.S. Defense Department satellites, two optical
satellites for SatRevolution and a military satellite for the Royal Netherlands
Air Force.
The rideshare space for the four U.S. government
satellites was acquired as part of the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Rapid
Agile Launch Initiative, which secures commercial launches from nontraditional
partners through the Defense Innovation Unit as part of the Space Test Program.
While the U.S. Space Force has not released
details on the four cubesats, it noted the STP-27VPA mission’s goal was to
launch “four research and development satellites from multiple DoD agencies to
demonstrate advanced space technologies.”
This was the first collaboration between the Space
Force and new launch provider Virgin Orbit, but it won’t be the last. The Space
Force awarded the company a $35 million task order in April 2020 for Space Test Program-S28, a mission to
place 44 small satellites in low Earth orbit over the course of three launches.
That task order was issued as part of Orbital
Services Program-4 — an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract
awarded to eight companies by the Space and Missile Systems Center in 2019.
OSP-4 is a Defense Department initiative to leverage the commercial small
launch market for government payloads, with launches taking place 12-24 months
after task orders are issued. The Air Force expects to launch 20 missions over
a nine-year period under OSP-4.
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