Cosmic Girl and LauncherOne

The modification work to fit the pylon on the 747 that will carry LauncherOne was carried out by L3 Platform Integration.

A BOEING 747-400 has recently been mated to a rocket it will carry that will launch satellites into orbit.

Virgin Orbit attached a LauncherOne rocket to 747-400 N744VG (ex-G-VWOW, c/n 32745), named Cosmic Girl, at its facility at Long Beach Airport in California. The aircraft is the first 747 to have been modified in this way.

LauncherOne is carried on a specially designed pylon on the left wing in the space between the number two engine and the fuselage that was originally designed to carry a spare fifth engine.

Virgin Group boss Sir Richard Branson wrote in a blog: “The team were carrying out the integration check of the rocket with Cosmic Girl to verify [that] mechanical, electrical, software and dynamics all work together for the first time. It’s an incredibly exciting moment for us, as Virgin Orbit’s first test flights move ever closer.”

The next major upcoming milestone will be LauncherOne’s first ‘captive carry’ flight, where the rocket will be transported by Cosmic Girl from take-off to landing. Captive carry flights will precede tests of the release mechanism and LauncherOne’s flight through the atmosphere.

The Virgin Orbit launch concept involves Cosmic Girl carrying LauncherOne, a twostage expendable rocket, to an altitude of more than 35,000ft.

Once released from the 747, the LauncherOne rocket fires up its single main-stage engine, a 73,500lb (327kN) LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called NewtonThree. This engine will fire for approximately three minutes. The single upper stage engine, a 5,000lb (22kN) LOX/ RP-1 NewtonFour, will then carry the payload into orbit. Typically, the second stage will execute multiple burns totalling nearly six minutes.

LauncherOne is 70ft (21m) long, weighs 57,000lb (25,854kg), has a payload capacity of 1,100lb (500kg) and will travel at more than 20 times the speed of sound.

Using traditional vertical launch ranges involves a typical 18 to 24-month wait to launch payloads, Virgin Orbit says. By offering a horizontal launch capability, the company intends to provide a quicker and lower-cost launch system for commercial organisations and research institutions, the idea being that operating from any latitude means it is possible to access to orbits that would otherwise be difficult to reach.

The pylon used to carry LauncherOne was test-flown on Cosmic Girl earlier in 2018 from Mojave Air and Space Port. The modification work on the jet, previously operated by Virgin Atlantic from new in 2001, to fit the pylon was carried out by L3 Platform Integration in Waco, Texas, and involved strengthening the left wing.

After testing Virgin Orbit will begin commercial operations; the company received a licence to conduct reusable launch vehicle flights using the aircraft from Mojave from the US Federal Aviation Administration in June 2018. In his blog, Branson said Virgin Orbit’s target is to begin orbital flights with LauncherOne “early next year”.

The company intends to operate from Spaceport Cornwall, a planned horizontal space launch site at Cornwall Airport Newquay (the former RAF St Mawgan). Virgin Orbit and Spaceport Cornwall have announced a partnership and the company plans to start launches from there by 2021.

Although using a Boeing 747 to launch space rockets is new, the concept of using a carrier aircraft as a reusable first stage for air-launch is not. Orbital Sciences Corporation, now part of Northrop Grumman, developed the concept 30 years ago with its Pegasus, first launched from a NASA B-52 on April 5, 1990.

Pegasus has now conducted 44 missions, launching more than 90 small satellites into low-Earth orbit from six separate sites in the United States, Europe and the Marshall Islands. Northrop Grumman’s L-1011 N140SC (c/n 1067) Stargazer is the launch platform for what the company claims is “the world’s standard for affordable and reliable small launch vehicles”.

It is this market of air-launching payloads into space cost-effectively and flexibly that Virgin Orbit is seeking to enter, but it is not the only new entrant in the sector.

Another Mojave-based company, Stratolaunch Systems Corporation, is developing the giant Stratolaunch, whose 385ft (117m) wingspan is the largest of any aircraft ever built.

Like Stargazer, Stratolaunch will be capable of launching the Pegasus, as well as a new family of mediumclass launch vehicles and potentially a reusable spaceplane. Stratolaunch Systems Corp is continuing to work to bring its huge aircraft to flight, the jet recently completing a mediumspeed taxi test at Mojave.

All these developments show airlaunching satellites looks set to be a busy area, but perhaps one question looms: will the market be large enough to sustain all the players? Mark Broadbent

LauncherOne just before it was attached to Boeing 747-400 N744VG at Long Beach Airport.
All photos Virgin Orbit