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Virgin Galactic's orbital plans
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Press release here: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=54140
Seems like the initial cooperation would probably take the form of ANA providing maintenance and ground support equipment to Virgin Orbit's 747 Cosmic Girl for launches staged out of an airport/spaceport in Japan. They will also evaluate the possibility of adapting ANA aircraft as additional launchers, but that would depend on there being sufficient demand to support more than one aircraft.
FighterJock
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Any idea as to what the payload is going to be for the LauncherOne Flight 1?
Vahe Demirjian
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Gunter's Space Page (https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_chr/lau2019.htm) lists a CubeSat simulator as the payload for the planned first launch of the LauncherOne rocket.
FighterJock
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Thanks for the info Vahe, and the website link.
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Home | Virgin Galactic
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Virgin Orbit Partners with Royal Air Force for Responsive Launch Capability - NASASpaceFlight.com
Virgin Orbit has announced a new partnership with the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force. A…
www.nasaspaceflight.com
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U.K. deepens space ties with U.S., announces investments in small satellites, responsive launch
The U.K. will invest $34 million in small satellites, will increase support for the Combined Space Operations Center.
spacenews.com
Motocar
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It's just the announcement, since this topic has been commented on the work of the engineer and retired Captain Robert Truax and his X-3 Enterprise rocket project
The cutaway drawing will be published in the Artwork-Motocar cutaways section, thank you for your observation and comment. Motocar
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Virgin Orbit to add extra rocket stage to LauncherOne for interplanetary missions
Virgin Orbit, while preparing for the first flight of its LauncherOne smallsat rocket, is in the process of choosing an engine for a three-stage variant that would be capable of sending payloads to…
spacenews.com
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EXPANDING OUR ORBIT
OCTOBER 31, 2019
As we entered into the new millennium, bright innovators started harnessing improvements in technology to squeeze more and more capabilities into smaller satellite payloads. Due to their low cost and short manufacturing times, these early smallsats were an excellent educational tool for university students. These days, the world can see that small satellites are transforming the way we approach almost all of our activities in space. And what’s more, inventive minds are devising new ways to use this technology to accomplish ever bigger and bolder missions.
Now, that even includes missions to deep space.
In May 2018, NASA’s InSight mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to begin its long, 35 million-mile journey to the Red Planet. The InSight lander is a marvelous piece of technology, enabling us to learn more about Mars’ weather, surface and subsurface than ever before. But what really caught our attention was the lander’s tiny escorts — a pair of briefcase-sized communications spacecraft known collectively as Mars Cube One (MarCO).
When InSight burst through Mars’ upper atmosphere at more than 12,000 miles per hour, it was MarCO-A and MarCO-B that filled a critical communications gap by relaying the lander’s data all the way back to Earth. For the first time, humans had used CubeSat technology for an interplanetary mission, and it was wildly successful (and cost-effective, to boot). You couldn’t ask for a better experimental demonstration.
Watching MarCO got us thinking — and our customers, too. That inspiration dovetailed with a steady stream of interest we’ve gotten from customers interested in using smallsats to support the renewed interest in the exploration of the Moon. That led us to think about whether LauncherOne would be able to send payloads large enough to be meaningful to places beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
As it turns out, the answer is yes. With the addition of a third stage housed within the rocket’s fairing, LauncherOne can send cutting-edge satellites on a ride past LEO into deep space. We’ve run the numbers, and we think we’ve got a solid engineering plan for ways to use a third stage to launch payloads not only into LEO, MEO, and GEO, but even towards the Moon, any of the Earth-Moon LaGrange points, various main-belt asteroids, Venus, or Mars.
With this simple adaptation, LauncherOne unlocks the ability to deliver enough mass to interplanetary destinations to conduct some really valuable smallsat missions, whether that’s studying the potential for extraterrestrial life or learning more about the chemical composition of far-flung worlds.
We’re thrilled to announce this new capability in support of our first interplanetary mission, which we unveiled earlier this month. This consortium is an important first step toward something the world has yet to see: a dedicated commercial small satellite mission to Mars.
And based on the interest we’ve seen since, similarly-sized missions to Venus and to asteroids like 433 Eros or even larger missions to the Moon won’t be far behind.
It’s inspiring to see NewSpace companies like SatRevolution pave the way forward with their ambitions for deep space small satellite missions. Our goal is to ensure their ideas and business plans aren’t throttled by a lack of affordable launch options.
We love to see these new and inspiring ideas. Satellite innovators of the world, keep them coming! Although we suspect the overwhelming number of our flights will be putting satellites into Earth orbit, we’re inspired to see the horizon extending out further than it ever has before. As our customers raise the bar on what they hope to achieve with small satellites, we’re gearing up to do exactly the same. [/quote]
virginorbit.com
OCTOBER 31, 2019
As we entered into the new millennium, bright innovators started harnessing improvements in technology to squeeze more and more capabilities into smaller satellite payloads. Due to their low cost and short manufacturing times, these early smallsats were an excellent educational tool for university students. These days, the world can see that small satellites are transforming the way we approach almost all of our activities in space. And what’s more, inventive minds are devising new ways to use this technology to accomplish ever bigger and bolder missions.
Now, that even includes missions to deep space.
In May 2018, NASA’s InSight mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to begin its long, 35 million-mile journey to the Red Planet. The InSight lander is a marvelous piece of technology, enabling us to learn more about Mars’ weather, surface and subsurface than ever before. But what really caught our attention was the lander’s tiny escorts — a pair of briefcase-sized communications spacecraft known collectively as Mars Cube One (MarCO).
When InSight burst through Mars’ upper atmosphere at more than 12,000 miles per hour, it was MarCO-A and MarCO-B that filled a critical communications gap by relaying the lander’s data all the way back to Earth. For the first time, humans had used CubeSat technology for an interplanetary mission, and it was wildly successful (and cost-effective, to boot). You couldn’t ask for a better experimental demonstration.
Watching MarCO got us thinking — and our customers, too. That inspiration dovetailed with a steady stream of interest we’ve gotten from customers interested in using smallsats to support the renewed interest in the exploration of the Moon. That led us to think about whether LauncherOne would be able to send payloads large enough to be meaningful to places beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
As it turns out, the answer is yes. With the addition of a third stage housed within the rocket’s fairing, LauncherOne can send cutting-edge satellites on a ride past LEO into deep space. We’ve run the numbers, and we think we’ve got a solid engineering plan for ways to use a third stage to launch payloads not only into LEO, MEO, and GEO, but even towards the Moon, any of the Earth-Moon LaGrange points, various main-belt asteroids, Venus, or Mars.
With this simple adaptation, LauncherOne unlocks the ability to deliver enough mass to interplanetary destinations to conduct some really valuable smallsat missions, whether that’s studying the potential for extraterrestrial life or learning more about the chemical composition of far-flung worlds.
We’re thrilled to announce this new capability in support of our first interplanetary mission, which we unveiled earlier this month. This consortium is an important first step toward something the world has yet to see: a dedicated commercial small satellite mission to Mars.
And based on the interest we’ve seen since, similarly-sized missions to Venus and to asteroids like 433 Eros or even larger missions to the Moon won’t be far behind.
It’s inspiring to see NewSpace companies like SatRevolution pave the way forward with their ambitions for deep space small satellite missions. Our goal is to ensure their ideas and business plans aren’t throttled by a lack of affordable launch options.
We love to see these new and inspiring ideas. Satellite innovators of the world, keep them coming! Although we suspect the overwhelming number of our flights will be putting satellites into Earth orbit, we’re inspired to see the horizon extending out further than it ever has before. As our customers raise the bar on what they hope to achieve with small satellites, we’re gearing up to do exactly the same. [/quote]
Expanding Our Orbit
With the addition of a third stage housed within the rocket’s fairing, LauncherOne can send cutting-edge satellites on a ride past LEO into deep space.
virginorbit.com
Well it took more than a "few weeks" they initially planned back in September but it seems they are now getting close.
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!
https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/1223262947104808962/photo/2
FighterJock
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Well it took more than a "few weeks" they initially planned back in September but it seems they are now getting close.
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!
One thing that I just cannot get over is the overall size of LauncherOne in comparison to the Pegasus launcher. What is the maximum take of weight of LauncherOne compared to Pegasus.
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That similarity puzzles me. Pegasus has proved a commercial failure, why would anybody as smart as Richard Branson want to copy it? I wonder if I am missing something.
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Wow, if Virgin's proposed prices hold up against the practical experience of Pegasus, that does explain it.
Even so, it will probably still be cheaper for small payloads to hitch a ride on a scheduled conventional launch, and LauncherOne will need to rely on its operational flexibility to gain a viable market.
Its the same market that Rocket Lab is currently servicing. If all you have is Rocket Lab funding and your satellite fits the weight/payload limits, it gives you a dedicated launch that fits your schedule and orbit.
About 100lbs more to LEO using two stages, (a third if it's past-LEO) instead of three stages and the HAPS. The option of getting a launch to exactly where you need to go plus tacking on the 100lb to 150lb payloads to Venus/Mars et-al makes it attractive if you can afford it. The flexability has always been the main draw of air-launch, and liquid propellant is better than solid for such missions. It's likely it's a bit cheaper as well all things considered.
LauncherOne - Wikipedia
Northrop Grumman Pegasus - Wikipedia
Randy
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Virgin Orbit sets expectations for first launch
Virgin Orbit says that it’s ready for its first orbital launch attempt, scheduled for May 24, while acknowledging potentially long odds of successfully placing a payload into orbit.
spacenews.com
aonestudio
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