Washington. January 11. INTERFAX - Private aerospace company Virgin Orbit will launch several commercial satellites into low Earth orbit on January 13 as part of the Above the Clouds mission, the company said on Twitter.
"The launch window for the third commercial launch of Virgin Orbit, named Above the Clouds, opens this Wednesday, January 12 (January 13 Moscow Time)," the company said in a statement on the social network.
According to the plan, a modified Boeing 747 aircraft with a LauncherOne carrier rocket attached to it will take off from the Mojave Airfield runway in California on January 12 between 13:00 and 15:30 Pacific Time (January 13, 00:00 - 2:30 Moscow Time). About an hour after the start of the flight, the rocket will be undocked, after which it will turn on the engines and continue on its way to the planned orbit on its own.
According to the company, as part of the launch, satellites for the Pentagon's space test program, including for testing communication technologies and navigation of objects in outer space, a device developed by Cornell University, as well as satellites of the Polish company SatRevolution and the American SpireGlobal, will be launched into orbit at a height of 500 km.
This launch will be the fourth for the rockets of this series.
