Sir Richard Branson just strapped a giant rocket to a 747 jet airplane with his space company Virgin Orbit

Sir Richard Branson's newest space company, Virgin Orbit, just debuted its full rocket-and-airplane launch system for the first time.

The airplane is a commercial 747-400 jet called "Cosmic Girl," and the orbital-class rocket is named "LauncherOne."

Virgin Orbit aims to use the retrofitted jet to tow LauncherOne as high above Earth as possible, release the rocket, and then blast a small-satellite payload into orbit around Earth.

"Air launch frees missions from traffic jams at the existing launch sites; eliminates the need for costly, fixed ground infrastructure; and makes the system more resilient to unfavorable weather conditions," the company said in an emailed press release.

Here's what the new system looks like.

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Sending a rocket into space is astronomically expensive. Even the most affordable launch vehicles today, such as the Falcon 9 rocket built by Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, can cost more than $62 million per flight.

Source: Business Insider

But the demand to launch smaller, less expensive satellites more frequently is booming, thanks to advances in materials, sensors, and software.

Source: Allied Market Research

Branson hopes to help meet that demand by exclusively launching smaller payloads more often and more affordably with Virgin Orbit.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Contributer : Tech Insider https://ift.tt/2AtBII6

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