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.
 The flight was nominal for about 9 seconds after the drop. The PST's fired about three seconds after drop, followed two seconds later by NewtonThree main engine ignition. The rocket initially pitched down, then began to pull up, responding to its flight control system. About three or four seconds after ignition, for reasons still to be determined, the engine stopped producing thrust.
After igniting, the NewtonThree engine produce 326.6 kN thrust for about 175 sec. The second stage NewtonFour engine would then have made about 22.2 kN thrust for 367 sec to accelerate itself and dummy payload either to a transfer orbit or to near-orbital velocity. NewtonFour would have restarted 31 min 26 sec after the drop, firing for about 15 seconds to reach its insertion orbit.