Virgin Orbit
On Sunday afternoon, Virgin Orbit joined the rare club of companies that had privately developed a rocket and successfully launched it into orbit. With the LauncherOne rocket falling from a 747 aircraft, the California company became the first to reach orbit with an air-launched, liquid-propelled rocket.
“This magnificent flight is the culmination of many years of hard work and will also unleash a whole new generation of innovators on the runway to a runway.” said Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the company. “Virgin Orbit has achieved something that was thought very impossible.”
The Sunday flight, which includes several fireworks from LauncherOne’s upper-phase engine and successful deployment of several small satellites for NASA, includes a development program that spans about eight years and a host of technical challenges.
An air rocket has some advantages over traditional boosters that are launched from the ground, especially the flexibility to reach different orbits and the ability to take off in fairly inclement weather. For these benefits, however, Virgin Orbit had to design a liquid rocket that could be dropped horizontally from an aircraft, ignite its engines, and quickly orient itself in a more vertical orbit. (Although Orbital Sciences developed the Pegasus rocket from an aircraft in the late 1980s, it was a straight-line solid propellant.)
Due to the proximity of the aircraft and its pilots, a rocket dropped from an aircraft cannot ignite immediately. In the case of LauncherOne, the rocket’s NewtonThree engine is ignited 3.25 seconds after it is dropped. The start of the engine starts at 5.2 seconds. During this time, the rocket falls and loses the velocity it gained from the aircraft, about 30,000 feet.
Technical challenges
Due to this resistance, a negative acceleration acts on the booster, causing all sorts of problems for the structure of the rocket and the propulsion system. One problem is that it starts forcing the liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants to the top of the tanks and the air gas – which fills the tanks when the propellant is poured – to the engine inlet.
The inflammatory process itself is also a challenge in the air. On the ground, a rocket usually ignites its engines, and the on-board computer conducts a final quick check to make sure everything is healthy before the rocket is released. This is why removal usually follows the inflammation with a few seconds. There is no margin of error with Launcher One, because if the ignition does not happen, the rocket simply falls into the sea.
An image showing the ignition of LauncherOne after passing through the Cosmic girl aircraft.
Virgin Orbit
The company and its engineers were able to overcome all these problems and more with the design of their rocket. But it cost time and a lot of money. Branson admitted that he and other investors have poured about $ 1 billion into Virgin Orbit, which is a lot of money to invest in a small satellite launcher, however innovative it may be. Ars explored Virgin Orbit’s paths to profitability last year and the road will not be easy.
But this is a reservation for another day. On Sunday, Virgin Orbit reached orbit on just its second flight, with a virtually flawless mission. Few companies have done this with privately developed vehicles – very few indeed outside Orbital Sciences, SpaceX and Rocket Lab. It was a good day.