A Boeing 747 aircraft named Cosmic Girl takes off with a Launcher One rocket under its wing
An airplane The Boeing 747 is named Cosmic Girl taking off this Monday from Cornwall (south west England) with Rocket Launcher One under his wing, on the first space mission in history to depart from British soil.
Apparatus from Virgin Orbit Company – founded by billionaire Richard Branson – left Newquay airport shortly after 22:00 GMT propel the rocket to be put into orbit from the earth.
Cosmic Girl is an old Boeing 747 Virgin airline which has been repurposed for the carriage of Launcher One under its left wing.
Hundreds of people they gathered around the airfield and a standing ovation as the plane took off to the music of the song “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stoneswhich also gave the mission its name.
After taking off horizontally, the plane will detach from the rocket between an hour and 90 minutes after takeoff, not far from the coast of Ireland.
From there, Launcher One will enter low Earth orbit to put the satellite into orbit, about 45 minutes later.
After that, the plane will return to the airfield and rockets will complete the mission of deploying satellites, with a variety of civil and military uses.
CR
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