Gone in 9 seconds: Virgin Orbit's maiden rocket flight went perfectly until it didn't
- Reference: 1590606367
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/27/virgin_orbit_postmortem/
- Source link:
LauncherOne is an intriguing beast, consisting of a rocket slung beneath the wing of one of Virgin Orbit boss Richard Branson's old Boeing 747s. Dropped from around 35,000 feet, the two-stage rocket is, in theory, capable of delivering up to 500kg into orbit.
Virgin Orbit is not the only air-launched game in town. Northrop Grumman's [2]Pegasus XL , dropped from an elderly Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, has an enviable track record. However, while the Pegasus is a solid-powered beast, LauncherOne is liquid-fuelled.
Another bonus of air launches is that Virgin Orbit can dispense with the pesky ground infrastructure needed by traditional vertical launchers as well a chunk of the weather problems that so often bedevil ground-based operators.
However, for all the benefits of dropping a rocket from a 747, the process is also tricky. This is something that [3]Virgin Orbit discovered on Monday after a day's delay to deal with some sensor issues.
The company revealed just how rapidly things went south in a [4]post detailing what it had learned so far from its first crack at powered flight.
The good news is that everything went to plan, up until it didn't. Having got to the drop point, LauncherOne was released from Cosmic Girl , Virgin Orbit's repurposed Boeing 747, in a controlled fashion. The ignition sequence went ahead as planned and, for the initial seconds of powered flight, all went well.
Data from a multitude of sensors was slurped by the company's systems as the mission proceeded, demonstrating that an air-launched, liquid-fuelled, orbital-class rocket could work. For about nine seconds.
"About 9 seconds after drop, something malfunctioned," the company explained. The first-stage engine shut down and the mission was, for want of a better word, terminated as the borked booster plummeted to the ocean.
At least it didn't explode.
Putting a brave face on things, Virgin Orbit ticked off the things it did manage to do: demonstrate LauncherOne in controlled, if brief, flight. It also proved its infrastructure worked and, perhaps more importantly, showed that the autonomous flight safety system was capable of detecting when it was in the correct flight corridor.
With the guidance systems also now shown to have worked (for the first few seconds at least) the company is poring over the data to work out what made that first-stage engine choke.
Before the truncated flight, Virgin Orbit had planned its first operational mission in a matter of months. Instead, another demo launch will be needed replete with the necessary tweaks (hardware or otherwise).
Here's our next rocket, built and ready for system-level testing in our final integration area as it waits for its turn to fly to space. [5]pic.twitter.com/Zhc2uDtMMC — Virgin Orbit (@Virgin_Orbit) [6]May 25, 2020
The company remained tight-lipped about just when that launch might take place. ®
[1] https://virginorbit.com/mission-recap-our-first-launch-demo/
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/15/space_roundup/
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/25/virgin_orbit_test_flight/
[4] https://virginorbit.com/mission-recap-our-first-launch-demo/
[5] https://t.co/Zhc2uDtMMC
[6] https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit/status/1265024136604037120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Re: Oh. Again?
As per the article, only solid fuel rockets launched this way so far. The other benefit is being able to launch from pretty much anywhere, anytime and likely above any inclement weather, to suit the requirements of the customer and not bother with all that pesky and expensive ground-based infrastructure.
Re: Oh. Again?
Why bother? Every man and his dog can do that.
Putting 500kg into orbit for, I think, $12 million is the trick. SpaceX charges about $90 million a launch for about 10 tonnes into LEO. Ride-shares are possible but the resulting orbits for multi-satellite launches are limited to wherever SpaceX wants to go today. If it's not the orbit that's wanted or close enough for a limited amount of adjustment after LEO is achieved then tough.
Re: Oh. Again?
They can also take off from potentially any airport, and the plane can carry the rocket a considerable distance before actually launching, so you can launch into any conceivable orbit rather than being limited to which orbits are reachable from SpaceX's launch sites. This allows, say, a UK-based company who wants to launch into a polar orbit to get Virgin to take off from Heathrow, carry the vehicle out over the Atlantic, and go straight north. They're hugely flexible.
Re: Oh. Again?
The flexibility and responsiveness are indeed certainly the big plus points.
Potentially any airport, yes. In practice though you have to ask nicely before anyone will let you fuel up the rocket on their airside tarmac and take off from their runway carrying what, with only a tiny amount of squinting, looks very much like a very large bomb slung under the wing.
People don’t like even the remotest chance of that kind of thing being dropped on top of them!
Re: Oh. Again?
I doubt you will ever see one of these rockets being prepped on the tarmac at Heathrow or any other major passenger airport. Liquid rocket fuel is often pretty nasty stuff, so you would have all kinds of environmental concerns. Plus most all of your major international airports are near or even have takeoff corridors happening over heavily populated neighborhoods.
Nobody wants to be the major airport that has something happen and the rocket ends up piling into some residential subdivision.
There are a number of less-constricted fields with long runways, including a number of recently retired military airbases. If I recall correctly, Virgin Orbit has an arrangement to fly out of Anderson AFB in Guam. Anderson has runways used for B-52 strikes during the Vietnam War. Plus Virgin Orbit needs to be pretty near the ocean, since they don't want to launch over land, especially somewhat populated land. So even Heathrow would probably be too far from the Atlantic (a couple hundred miles) to really work for Virgin.
Re: Oh. Again?
Virgin plan to lob stuff into orbit using planes out of Newquay - provided Cornish ratepayers keep sending money to Necker Island.
Re: Oh. Again?
I guess the point is that if they could get it working, it would be super cheap to get lighter payloads into orbit and a much faster turnaround time. I would think a lot of companies would be interested in that.
Yes, we have done orbital launch for decades but only for people with government-scale budgets.
Re: Oh. Again?
One thing the article didn't mention is that Pegasus XL is expensive as hell. They have several left, but nobody can afford them.
If VO can get this done for a decent price, then they will have a lot of business. The demand is there.
SpaceX launch just scrubbed too, weather related
See subject.
✈︎
Notice it did not so much fly, as plummet.
Re: ✈︎
Hovered, in much the same way bricks do n't
Re: ✈︎
You have got it wrong!
Not plummet; it was negative flight.
Re: ✈︎
Ewe got it.
Branson keeps at it "Because of the enormous commercial possibilities should he succeed."
Clever sheep, him.
Oh. Again?
I can't understand what game they're playing here. It has taken them 16 years to get to the point of not being able to get 500 kg into orbit.
Why bother? Every man and his dog can do that.
Is this some elaborate tax dodge for Branson or something?