Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. said it\u2019s on course for Britain\u2019s first-ever space launch as final preparations for the mission proceed as planned following earlier delays.<\/p>\n
The takeoff of a modified Boeing Co. 747 jetliner with a rocket under its wing from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay, England, is planned between 9:40 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday, the company said in a briefing.<\/p>\n
While Virgin Orbit has set out a number of possible dates for the mission over the next two weeks, launch plans are very much \u201cgeared toward and focused on the beginning of the window,\u201d chief executive officer Dan Hart said Sunday at the space center in southwest England.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now everything is green,\u201d Hart said. \u201cThe rocket was armed yesterday and we\u2019ll be loading fuel later today. We\u2019re in full motion right now. That said, we\u2019re going to proceed cautiously on this flight. We\u2019re in different airspace than we\u2019ve flown before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virgin Orbit, which normally operates from the Mojave Desert, put plans for a pre-Christmas UK launch on hold amid last-minute snags, the UK Civil Aviation Authority said Dec. 8.<\/p>\n
Since then, the company has completed a vital \u201cwet rehearsal\u201d in which the LauncherOne rocket was loaded with fuel and a test countdown carried out.<\/p>\n
As the 747, named Cosmic Girl, is a robust aircraft and will climb above the clouds before the rocket blasts away, surface conditions aren\u2019t as big a concern as in traditional launches, though the weather is being monitored for crosswinds and potential lightning strikes, Hart said.<\/p>\n
The mission from Cornwall will deploy nine satellites for a range of customers.<\/p>\n
Hart said that Long Beach-based Virgin Orbit would like to launch again from the spaceport before the end of this year if possible, with work underway on putting together the next payload, aided by the UK Space Agency.<\/p>\n
The takeoff of a modified Boeing Co. 747 jetliner with a rocket under its wing from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay, England, is planned for Monday evening. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":475689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31750],"tags":[35290,83559,17524,44987,37276,73060,41720],"class_list":["post-475687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-boeing-747","tag-cosmic-girl","tag-richard-branson","tag-rocket-launch","tag-space-travel","tag-united-kingdom-uk","tag-virgin-orbit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":475691,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475687\/revisions\/475691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}