Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl, with LauncherOne under its wing | Image: Virgin Orbit
Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit postponed its first night launch on Wednesday after finding that the temperature of its rocket propellant was “slightly out of bounds.” The company is figuring out when to move ahead with the launch in the next few days.
This mission — called “Straight Up” in homage to the 1988 song by Paula Abdul — is for the US Space Force and will carry seven small satellites for the Space Test Program. It’ll be the fifth mission for Virgin Orbit and the second one since the company went public through a SPAC merger. The launch was originally set to occur out of Mojave, California, during a launch window that opened at 1AM ET, which would have marked the first launch at night for the company.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism
that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness
accounts, the history behind an article.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.