| Virgin Orbit has some new information that they shared in their blog … Since our first Launch Demo back in May, we’ve been working hard every day to return to flight with gusto and confidence. Seven months ago, we set a goal to conduct our next demo mission with LauncherOne before the end of the year — and today, we remain right on track to hit that goal. We’re very excited to announce that the launch window for our Launch Demo 2 mission opens on Saturday, December 19th, with a backup window on Sunday, December 20th. Each day, we’ll have an opportunity to launch between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM Pacific. On this flight, for the first time, we’ll be carrying several customer payloads onboard LauncherOne. We’re immensely grateful to our friends at NASA’s Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) and NASA’s Launch Services Program (NASA LSP) for what has been an amazing collaborative effort. NASA created VCLS to foster the development of new commercial launch capabilities, and working with them has helped us prove out our grand plans for bringing Virgin’s heritage of customer service to the realm of satellite launch. As you can imagine, with our full system now out on the tarmac at Mojave Air and Space Port, we’re incredibly excited to be on the cusp of launching again. There’s still a bit of work for us to do before our launch window arrives, namely wet dress rehearsals — but that’s expected to go about as smoothly as our other recent milestones. You can read more about our ongoing activities and what comes next in our latest blog. On launch day, like before, we’ll share real-time updates on Twitter as the mission progresses so you won’t miss a thing: @Virgin_Orbit. In the meantime, keep an eye out for more updates from our team as we check off our last few to-dos before we fly. |