Original Story: Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit — the sibling company to Richard Branson's space tourism venture Virgin Galactic — plans to conduct the first test launch of its rocket today. The company has been developing and testing its vehicles for the last six years, but now it's ready to finally send a rocket to orbit.
Virgin Orbit's primary rocket is called LauncherOne, capable of launching small to medium payloads, roughly the size of washing machines, to space. And the rocket takes a unique path to get there. Rather than launching upright from the ground — as the majority of rockets do these days — LauncherOne actually takes off from underneath the wing of a Boeing 747 airplane. Nicknamed Cosmic Girl, the 747 is designed to carry LauncherOne up to 35,000 feet.
And here's another article:
Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit pushes midair rocket launch to Monday - CNET
The company planned to do a full demonstration launch Sunday, May 24, but a screwy sensor prompted the team to scrub for the day "out of an abundance of caution."
The company tweeted that the issue should be resolved quickly, which would allow for the launch to still go forward during its backup window on Monday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. PT. The plan is for Cosmic Girl to take off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California and release the LauncherOne rocket over the Pacific Ocean. After a few seconds of free fall, the rocket's engine will ignite in midair for the first time and head toward low earth orbit.
Earth's magnetic field weakening, impacting orbiting satellites: Scientists - science - Hindustan
Scientists say that earth’s magnetic field is gradually weakening which is resulting in technical disturbances in some satellites orbiting our planet.
The field is mostly generated by the ocean of super-hot liquid iron that makes up Earth’s outer core, around 3,000 km below our feet. It creates electric currents that generate and change our electromagnetic field, according to the European Space Agency, ESA.
This field varies in strength and direction and over the last 200 years, it has lost around 9% of its strength.
Too many satellites planned for orbit? | Commentary | oleantimesherald.com
There are an estimated 2,200 satellites orbiting the Earth at present, but telecommunications companies are launching dozens of new satellites regularly in hopes of providing high-speed broadband internet access to the entire planet.
Not to be left out of the game, Amazon plans to create its own space-based internet system, Project Kuiper, with the launch of more than 3,000 satellites.
That's a lot of satellites that could fill the skies over the next decade. Now would be the time for the formation of an international organization — composed of satellite companies, scientists and government representatives — that would provide some control over how many satellites orbit the Earth.
Quite a lot has been going on:
'Groupie' galaxies orbiting Milky Way tell us about dark matter, how galaxy formed | University
Two new studies have revealed more and more about these 'groupie' galaxies around the Milky Way, including evidence that large satellite galaxies can bring their own small satellites with them when they are sucked into orbit around the Milky Way. Scientists have also extracted information about the halos of dark matter that surround these galaxies, as well as a prediction that our home galaxy should host an additional 100 or so very faint satellite galaxies awaiting discovery.
A crowd in space: Tens of thousands of satellites planned for orbit | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Virgin Orbit terminates rocket launch after releasing it over the Pacific - UPI.com
May 25 (UPI) -- Virgin Orbit said it terminated the launch of a demonstration rocket Monday afternoon shortly after its release from the wing of a 747 jet over the Pacific Ocean.
The rocket, called LauncherOne, was to ignite its engines in mid-air for the first time as the company develops a new method to send satellites into orbit.
The jet released the rocket just after 3:50 p.m., but the company announced the mission was terminated shortly afterward, without immediate explanation.
Virgin Orbit sets first orbital launch for May 24 – TechCrunch
The concept behind Virgin Orbit’s approach is designed to reduce costs to make small satellite launches more affordable. Estimates put launch costs at around $12 million per flight, which is a considerable savings versus traditional launch costs and even the price of SpaceX missions.
Virgin Orbit has been performing a number of tests and flights to get ready for this final full demonstration mission, including a captive carry test last month . If all goes well with this demo mission, the company could begin launching for commercial clients as early as July.
Happening on Twitter
Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit fails to launch rocket to space during first test flight… https://t.co/pVRnOMPqfu verge (from New York) Mon May 25 20:16:42 +0000 2020
Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit plans to fly its rocket for the first time this weekend… https://t.co/QAnP1eH4vY verge (from New York) Mon May 25 13:00:06 +0000 2020
Small problem! DigitalGlobe satellite imagery reviewed by The Daily Beast shows that a total normal traffic pattern… https://t.co/iuLM2En2dV NoahShachtman (from Wherever) Mon May 18 01:14:12 +0000 2020
Next stop is the Small Magellanic Cloud, 200,000 light-years away! ☁️ This is another of our Milky Way's satellite… https://t.co/xaxNK5WEaB NASAUniverse (from Greenbelt, MD) Mon May 18 16:40:08 +0000 2020
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