LOS ANGELES (National Times) \u2014 A Virgin Orbit rocket carrying seven U.S. Defense Department satellites was launched from a special Boeing 747 flying off the Southern California coast and streaked toward space.<\/p>\n
The modified jumbo jet took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in the Mojave Desert and released the rocket over the Pacific Ocean, northwest of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The launch was procured by the U.S. Space Force for a Defense Department test program. The seven payloads will conduct various experiments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there we have it, folks!\u201d the company tweeted shortly before 1 a.m. local time, about an hour after the rocket separated from the 747. \u201cNewtonFour successfully reignited and deployed all customer spacecraft into their target orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Virgin Orbit\u2019s fourth commercial launch and first night launch. The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday night, but that attempt was scrubbed due to a propellant temperature issue.<\/p>\n
Virgin Orbit named the mission \u201cStraight Up\u201d after the hit on Paula Abdul\u2019s debut studio album \u201cForever Your Girl,\u201d which was released through Virgin Records in 1988.<\/p>\n
Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 by British billionaire Richard Branson. It is headquartered in Long Beach, California, and currently conducts launches from the Mojave airport but is planning international missions.<\/p>\n
Later this year, the company will launch two satellites on a mission flying out of Newquay Airport in Cornwall, England. The satellites will conduct radio signal monitoring tests in a joint project of the United Kingdom\u2019s Ministry of Defense and the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES (National Times) \u2014 A Virgin Orbit rocket carrying seven U.S. Defense Department satellites was launched from a special Boeing 747 flying off the Southern California coast and streaked toward space. The modified jumbo jet took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in the Mojave Desert and released the rocket over the Pacific […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n