Virgin Orbit Launch Four Satellites in Above the Clouds Mission

Credit: Virgin Orbit

On Thursday, January 13 at 5:51 pm ET (22:51 UTC), Virgin Orbit launched the LauncherOne rocket for the 4th time with three payloads from Virgin Orbit's plane, Cosmic Girl, which will takeoff from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. The mission's official name is STP-27VPB and its nickname is Above the Clouds. The payloads are:

Ignis - Technology Demonstration CubeSat that will demonatrate new propulsion technologies.

PAN A/B- Two satellites that will demonstrate new docking technologies. It is built by NASA Langley and Cornell University as part of the ELaNA program.

SteamSat-2 - A satellite that will demonstrate water-fueled thrusters for in-space propulsion.

LauncherOne was originally developed by Virgin Galactic before the company split into Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit. It had its first test launch in May 2020. This flight failed because of a fuel line issue which happened just after first stage ignition. In January 2021, LauncherOne had its first successful mission which was also the first mission with payloads. A third mission, Tubular Bells Part One, launched in June. This was the 3rd orbital launch attempt of 2022.