The FAA has issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission: http://bit.ly/2yXXMfs
No less than one week prior to flight, VO must proivde the FAA with the following for review and acceptance:(a) Valve Acceptance Test Reports(b) Flght Computer Qualification Test Report(c) Flight Computer Acceptance Test Report(d) End-to-End Test Plan and Procedures
Virgin Orbit is designing a satellite launch vehicle that will be air launched from a modified 747 airplane. STA License is requested to operate an S-Band Transmitter located on Launcher One for the upcoming first launch. 747 will take-off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California with Launcher One in captive carry. Launcher One will be dropped and launched in the Western Sea Range restricted airspace off Point Mugu, California. Launch license to be provided by FAA-Commercial Space Transportation Office. Captive carry flight and orbital trajectory details have been provided to NTIA.
Seems an odd use of language that the payload is listed as: Mass Simulator with CubeSat. As opposed to "mass simulator and cubesat." Hmm.
Tweet from Jeff FoustQuoteThe FAA has issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission: http://bit.ly/2yXXMfs
Quote from: gongora on 06/29/2018 09:53 pmTweet from Jeff FoustQuoteThe FAA has issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission: http://bit.ly/2yXXMfs "launch azimuth of 163 degrees"?Isn't that almost straight "backwards" against the rotation of the Earth? Why make achieving orbit so difficult?
Quote from: Comga on 09/26/2018 05:47 amQuote from: gongora on 06/29/2018 09:53 pmTweet from Jeff FoustQuoteThe FAA has issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission: http://bit.ly/2yXXMfs "launch azimuth of 163 degrees"?Isn't that almost straight "backwards" against the rotation of the Earth? Why make achieving orbit so difficult?No, backwards would be 270 degrees (i.e. due west). 163 degrees is south-southeast.
Quote from: envy887 on 09/26/2018 01:00 pmQuote from: Comga on 09/26/2018 05:47 amQuote from: gongora on 06/29/2018 09:53 pmTweet from Jeff FoustQuoteThe FAA has issued a launch license to Virgin Orbit for its first LauncherOne mission: http://bit.ly/2yXXMfs "launch azimuth of 163 degrees"?Isn't that almost straight "backwards" against the rotation of the Earth? Why make achieving orbit so difficult?No, backwards would be 270 degrees (i.e. due west). 163 degrees is south-southeast.Ah, so probably roughly parallel to the coast?
So now NET January?
Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 11/27/2018 01:56 pmSo now NET January?As I see it, 2018 is still the year when dedicated launch vehicles come to the fore. But only one of them is already launching.There seems to be a word missing in that second tweet. Month? Quarter? Half?
Cosmic Girl is back in Mojave....
https://virginorbit.com/in-one-year-and-out-the-other/QuoteIn January, we plan to have Chief Test Pilot Kelly Latimer and the rest of our flight crew guide us through one more taxi test with the mated rocket and an additional captive carry test with our orbital flight hardware. Then, we’ll be ready to light this candle and conduct our launch demonstration.
In January, we plan to have Chief Test Pilot Kelly Latimer and the rest of our flight crew guide us through one more taxi test with the mated rocket and an additional captive carry test with our orbital flight hardware. Then, we’ll be ready to light this candle and conduct our launch demonstration.
Cosmic Girl and LauncherOne are back on the runway in Mojave!
Since the beginning the year, there's been a flurry of fast-paced but deliberate activity to ready ourselves for an orbital launch demo with LauncherOne. Between flight sims, loading rehearsals and more, we validated a bevy of procedural and technical parameters...
… and worked to demonstrate both vehicle and team readiness across the mission timeline. Last week, team got the thumbs-up to move all of our GSE over to the hammerhead, the area where we'll conduct ground ops in the run-up to our orbital launch demonstration.
This week, we took LauncherOne off the test stand and re-mated the rocket to Cosmic Girl's wing. All this activity is a precursor to a short series of wet dress rehearsals, as well as one more taxi test and captive carry flight with the fully loaded rocket.
Everyone is eager for us to conduct our launch demonstration — us more than anyone else. Now, we’ve got the rocket, our airplane and all of our support equipment positioned just next to the runway from which we'll fly. In a very literal sense, we're really close!