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V.O. LauncherOne |
Virgin Orbit
Virgin Galactic
announced in 2012 the design of its new
LauncherOne
air-launched space launch vehicle. It will use the same WhiteKnightTwo
plane as the manned suborbital SpaceShipTwo.
LauncherOne is an expendable, two stage rocket with liquid RP-1 kerosene and liquid
oxygen as propellants. The first stage is powered by the NewtonTwo engine. The second
stage, featuring the NewtonOne engine, is reignitable for orbit insertion.
LauncherOne is being developed by The Spaceship Company. TSC is a partnership of
Virgin Galactic and Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of
Northrop Grumman.
After lift-off with the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, LauncherOne will be released
from WhiteKnightTwo at an altitude of approximately 15 km. LauncherOne will free
fall for approximately four seconds before the first stage ignites. The two stages
operate in sequence, with the potential for the second stage to relight, and the
payload is delivered to a designated low-earth orbit.
A maiden launch is planned for 2015 with the vehicle becoming operational in 2016.
Initially, LauncherOne missions will be staged from Spaceport America, a new commercial
spaceport in New Mexico.
LauncherOne
will be capable 225 kg to low inclination Low Earth Orbit, and 100 kg to a higher
altitude, Sun-Synchronous Low Earth Orbit. Payloads will be accommodated within
a fairing approximately 40 inches (102 cm) in diameter, with a cylindrical shape
for the first 30 inches (76 cm) and a conical section above.
MOJAVE, Calif., 2014, January 23 --
Two types of Newton engines have been designed for use on Virgin Galactic's two-stage
LauncherOne rocket, which is destined to carry satellites into orbit from the WhiteKnightTwo
carrier airplane starting as early as 2016.
The prototypes
already have gone through dozens of rounds of firings at Virgin Galactic's rocket
test stands in an isolated area of the Mojave Air and Space Port, said Robyn Ringuette,
the company's director of liquid propulsion.
The NewtonOne, an upper-stage
engine designed to provide 3,500 pounds (15.6 kN) of thrust, has been run for its
projected full mission duration of five minutes. The
NewtonTwo,
which would serve as LauncherOne's first-stage engine, has
been hot-fired for just a few seconds at a time so far. When it is ready for prime
time, Virgin Galactic expects it to blast away for about two and a half minutes,
with 47,500 pounds (211.3 kN) of thrust.*
The Newton engines use RP-1 kerosene and supercooled liquid oxygen as propellants.
Virgin Galactic says those engines will be powerful enough to send payloads weighing
up to 225 kilograms into low Earth orbit on LauncherOne.
* In 2014, the LauncherOne
concept was scaled up for increased performance, using the larger NewtonThree and
NewtonFour engines and a Boeing 747-400 carrier plane replacing the smaller WhiteKnightTwo.
The new more powerful engine, called NewtonThree, is intended to replace
the NewtonTwo engine. This engine has 59,500 to 73.500 lb of thrust (264.7 to 327
kN).
"LauncherOne two new engines: A single 73,500 lbf thrust �NewtonThree� main stage engine, and a single 5,000 lbf thrust �NewtonFour� upper stage engine. Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour are highly reliable, pump-fed LOX/RP-1 liquid rocket engines."
2021, January 17 -- Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne reached orbit for the first
time. Nine NASA cubesats rode the 25.855 tonne rocket to orbit during its Launch
Demo 2 flight. The cubesats were part of the 20th Educational Launch of NanoSatellites
(ELaNa 20) mission. Total deployed payload mass was 23.86 kg.
The 21.34 meter long, two-stage rocket's first stage engine ignited and completed
its 33.34 tonne-thrust, roughly 3-minute burn. The second stage NewtonFour engine
then provided 2.27 tonnes of thrust for about 5 minutes 56 seconds to reach a transfer
orbit. After a coast to apogee, NewtonFour restarted for roughly 4.3 seconds at
about T+55 minutes 46 seconds to reach its insertion orbit (492 - 518 km; 60.7�)
2020, May 25 -- Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne suffered an inuagural Launch Demo failure after drop release from Virgin Orbit's carrier aircraft. A failure occurred moments after the 21.3 meter long, two-stage rocket's LOX/Kerosene NewtonThree engine ignited, at an altitude of about 10.7 km.