LAUNCH TIME | July 2, 2022 - 07:30 |
LAUNCH PROVIDER | Virgin Orbit |
CUSTOMER | United States Space Force |
ROCKET | LauncherOne |
LAUNCH SITE | Cosmic Girl, Mojave Air and Space Port, California |
PAYLOAD MASS | 300 Kg |
DESTINATION | Lower Earth Orbit, 500 km (LEO) |
LANDING SITE | LauncherOne is unable to land |
WEATHER | - |
Virgin Orbit will launch its LaunchOne rocket for the fifth time in its history.
In this mission, LauncherOne will transport a spacecraft for the United States Space Force on their STP-S28A mission with additional payloads for the United States Department of Defense (DoD) space test program (STP).
What's on board?
Virgin Orbit has been selected to launch part of the Rapid Agile Launch Intuitive (RALI) of the US Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP).
The Space Test Program is a program run by the Department of Defense that selects priority satellites annually through the Space Experiments Review Board (SERB).
Given the secrecy of the mission, the specifications of each satellite and which branch of the army designed them have not been made public.
LauncherOne and Cosmic Girl
LauncherOne is one of two "mid-air" launch systems in the world.
For the initial phase of flight the LauncherOne rocket travels under the left wing of a Boeing 747. The rocket is released from the wing when the 747 is at a height of 10,600m.
The first stage LauncherOne's first stage has a NewtonThree engine, powered by RP-1 and Liquid Oxygen (LOX), which produces 327 kN of thrust.
The second stage The second stage has a NewtonFour engine, also powered by RP-1 and LOX, which produces only 22kN of thrust.
The live stream will begin approximately 60 minutes before Cosmic Girl takes off.
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