Virgin Orbit launched its fifth flight of the LauncherOne rocket, after scrubbing an attempt on Wednesday because the propellant temperature was deemed to be “slightly out of bounds”. That decision was made prior to the take-off of Cosmic Girl, the carrier aircraft.
A nominal take off and launch occurred on Friday for the mission, named Straight Up, consisting of seven satellites from the US Space Force and NASA destined for low Earth orbit. Straight Up was Virgin Orbit’s first nighttime launch.
The launch was procured by the Space Force’s Rocket Systems Launch Program, with payloads provided by the Space Test Program. The USSF designation for the mission is STP-S28A. Two of the satellites are also part of the ELaNa (Educational Launch of Nanosatellites) 39 mission for NASA.