Gallery: Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne Rocket for Satellite Missions

By Space.com Staff
published

Conceptual Illustration of LauncherOne

Virgin Galactic

Conceptual illustration of LauncherOne. Image released July 10, 2012.

Conceptual Illustration of LauncherOne in Flight

Virgin Galactic

Conceptual illustration of LauncherOne in flight.

Satellite Released from LauncherOne

Virgin Galactic

Conceptual illustration of a satellite after being released from LauncherOne. Image released July 10, 2012.

LauncherOne test article

Virgin Orbit

A LauncherOne test article — an entire vehicle except for payload fairing and fins — leaves Virgin Orbit's Long Beach, California, factory for integrated stage testing.

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl with pylon

Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit's "Cosmic Girl" aircraft during a test flight to study the aerodynamic characteristics of the LauncherOne pylon attached to its left wing.

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.