Virgin Orbit eyes first night launch on June 29 under superhit pop song-inspired mission

Richard Branson-owned Virgin Group subsidiary Virgin Orbit announced the launch date of its next mission. The launch service-providing company is targeting June 29 for the ‘Straight Up’ mission which would support the United States Space Force’s STP-28A mission. The launch was procured for the Rocket Systems Launch Program, with payloads provided by the DoD Space Test Program under a US Air Force contract awarded to Virgin Orbit in April 2020.  

Virgin Orbit says that the forthcoming launch is extremely important as it would mark the first night mission conducted by the company. “The launch will carry seven satellites from multiple government agencies that are experiments intended to demonstrate novel modular satellite bus, space domain awareness, and adaptive radio frequency technologies”, the company said in an official statement. 

Mission profile

The customised Boeing 747, Cosmic Girl, which is the company’s flagship launch vehicle will take off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California with the LauncherOne rocket fitted beneath the wings. The company has an unconventional way of lofting satellites into orbit and it does so using the LauncherOne rocket which carries the payload in its fairing and is propelled from the Cosmic Girl out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

According to Virgin Orbit, LauncherOne is awaiting integration testing with the aircraft and ground equipment, followed by a full launch rehearsal and final mating to the Cosmic Girl. Interestingly, the payload will be launched to a target orbit of approximately 500 kilometres above the Earth’s surface at an inclination of 45 degrees. Virgin says that this is an orbit no other system has reached from the West Coast. 

Check out the amusing reason behind the mission’s name

In its statement, Virgin Orbit revealed the reason behind naming the mission ‘Straight Up’. It said that the name is inspired by American singer Paula Abdul’s breakthrough song ‘Straight Up’ from her debut studio album 'Forever Your Girl', which was released through Virgin Records on June 21, 1988.

Being the most successful debut album ever after release, the song still remains Abdul’s biggest international hit to date. “Virgin Orbit has been rising ‘straight up’ since we began commercial launch operations 18 months ago,” said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart. So far, the company has conducted three successful back-to-back launches, including eight DoD Science and Technology demonstrations across two flights.