Sir Richard Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit has succeeded in putting its first satellites in space.
- Virgin Orbit’s 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California on January 17, 2021 with the rocket, called Launcher One.
- The rocket flew a 10 tiny satellites on behalf of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites, or ELaNa, program, which allows high school and college students to design and assemble small satellites that NASA then pays to launch into space.
- Sir Richard Branson is hoping to tap into what is a growing market for small, lower-cost satellites.
- By using a jet plane as the launch platform, he can theoretically send up spacecraft from anywhere in the world.
