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View the Press RE C NTU LAS VE S X N X A A S N A A L E VIR IT GIN ORB L AUNCH DEMO 2 PRESS GUIDE JANUARY 2021 PRESS GUIDE Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket ignites in mid-air during VIRGIN ORBIT the company’s first Launch Demo in May 2020. 2 “THE BEST WAY OF LEARNING ABOUT ANYTHING IS BY DOING.” —RICHARD BRANSON PRESS GUIDE VIRGIN ORBIT 3 Virgin Orbit teammates complete a dry run of the payload encapsulation process ahead of the company’s Launch Demo 2 mission. August 2020. Chief Test Pilot Kelly Latimer conducts a flight test with Virgin Orbit’s carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl in late November 2020. Virgin Orbit teammates connect Cosmic Girl and LauncherOne to PRESS GUIDE ground support equipment on the runway in Mojave. January 30, 2020. VIRGIN ORBIT 4 MISSION OVERVIEW Launch Demo 2 marks Virgin Orbit’s second orbital launch attempt. Building on the significant step forward the team took with our first Launch Demo in May earlier this year, this demonstration test flight will serve as an additional learning opportunity as our company begins its transition to commercial service. Virgin Orbit’s air-launch technology is revolutionizing how we think about and conduct launches to space, offering more flexibility, agility and responsiveness than any traditional ground-based launch system. Our LauncherOne system enables easier access to space for a broad variety of small satellite makers and operators — both government and commercial customers alike. The team is excited to have 9 CubeSat missions onboard LauncherOne during this test flight, the first time Virgin Orbit will carry customer payloads. Contracted under NASA’s Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) program — an initiative intended to foster the development of new commercial launch capabilities for innovative, risk-tolerant payloads — this flight marks the 20th Educational Launch of NanoSatellites (ELaNa XX) mission. For this mission, Virgin Orbit’s carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl will depart from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California before traveling out over the Pacific Ocean. After reaching the drop point — approximately 50 miles south of the Channel Islands — Cosmic Girl will release the two-stage LauncherOne vehicle, which will ignite its NewtonThree engine in midair. The flight will then continue towards its ultimate target of Low Earth Orbit. PRESS GUIDE VIRGIN ORBIT 5 TIMING The window for the Launch Demo 2 mission opens on Sunday, January 10th, with additional opportunities to launch throughout January. We will only proceed with the mission if all conditions for launch are nominal. Like all rockets, weather or other issues can cause delays; should that happen, we have additional backup windows in the following weeks. LAUNCH SITE A two-hour drive north of Virgin Orbit’s manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California, the Mojave Air and Space Port is a hub of flight testing, space industry activity, and aircraft maintenance and storage. With a deep history in aerospace, it is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal spacecraft launches, certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2004. Mojave is an ideal location for Virgin Orbit’s early flight operations, as it is readily accessible to staff in Long Beach, as well as our 50 or so teammates based at our rocket engine test site nearby. Additionally, the launch site provides easy access to high inclination orbits such as polar or sun-synchronous orbits, common for weather and Earth observation satellites. Even as Virgin Orbit brings multiple other launch sites online in places like the U.K., Guam and Japan, we expect the Mojave Air and Space Port to remain an attractive option for customers who are most interested in high inclination orbits. KEEP UP WITH THE ACTION This orbital test flight will not be publicly livestreamed. For real-time updates as the mission progresses, follow us on Twitter (@Virgin.Orbit). PRESS GUIDE Due to capacity restrictions, we have not invited any media photographers or videographers. However, we will be documenting the entire day via our in-house media team. To access high-quality B-roll and photos captured on flight day, please reach out to [email protected]. VIRGIN ORBIT 6 OUR PEOPLE Richard Branson Dan Hart Founder, Adventurer, Serial Entrepreneur Virgin Orbit President and CEO Mandy Vaughn Kelly Latimer VOX Space President Chief Test Pilot Eric Bippert Todd Ericson Chief Pilot Co-Pilot WHO YOU GONNA CALL? For more information or to set up media interviews, please reach out to Kendall Russell or submit an email to our press inbox ([email protected]). Kendall Russell Communications Officer 516 640 1624 [email protected] PRESS GUIDE VIRGIN ORBIT 7 ABOUT VIRGIN ORBIT Founded by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit is working to bust open the barriers that limit full utilization of space for all of humankind. We’ll do this by making space launches more affordable, frequent and inclusive, and by enabling the thriving global community of small satellite makers. Virgin Orbit provides reliable, responsive and flexible launches for small satellites using LauncherOne — a two-stage, expendable rocket launched from under the wing of a Boeing 747-400 called Cosmic Girl. The satellites LauncherOne carries may be as small as a loaf of bread or as large as a home refrigerator, and on any given flight the rocket will ferry 300 kg (660 lb) or more of cargo, which could be one large satellite or dozens of smaller ones. OUR PURPOSE The ways that we use space to explore, connect and protect our planet are quickly changing, driven largely by a new wave of satellite technology. New age satellites are growing smaller and less expensive, cracking open an opportunity for more people, governments, and businesses to get involved in the industry than ever before. But even the coolest satellites can’t help anyone when they’re stuck on the ground. Large, ground-based rockets have always and still will play a key role, but the market desperately needs more affordable, flexible and responsive pathways to space. That’s where LauncherOne comes in. Our goal is to lower the barriers to entry preventing easy access to orbit, and satisfy the ever-increasing demand for dedicated small satellite launch services. PRESS GUIDE VIRGIN ORBIT 8 OUR ROCKET LAUNCHERONE 70 FT 99+% in length is manufactured in the USA 57,000 LBM 75% is the typical takeoff weight of of atmosphere that LauncherOne a LauncherOne rocket, including has cleared at the point of release the satellites 5 SEC 8,000 MPH time between release of is the typical maximum speed LauncherOne and ignition of LauncherOne’s first stage of NewtonThree 17,500 MPH is the typical maximum speed of LauncherOne’s second stage PAYLOAD 650-1,100 LBM is the typical mass of satellites we deliver to orbit on each flight NEWTONFOUR 310-745 MI 6 MIN is the typical altitude run time at which we deploy our customers’ satellites Completed in 2 BURNS to allow circularization NEWTONTHREE of the desired orbit 3 MIN run time 5,000 LBF of thrust 73,500 LBF vacuum-equivalent thrust PRESS GUIDE VIRGIN ORBIT 9 JOURNEY SO FAR A rigorous investigation and robust testing program has enabled Virgin Orbit to return to flight just seven months after our initial launch attempt. Although LauncherOne did not reach space during our first Launch Demo, we’re extremely proud of what we were able to accomplish. In fact, we remain thrilled by just how much did go right: from a perfectly executed terminal count to some of the most challenging portions of our flight — release, the controlled drop, the rocket’s ignition sequence, and the initial portion of guided, powered flight — every part of our system worked exactly as we designed it to do. Data from hundreds of channels and sensors also confirmed that the rocket’s performance matched our predictions. All in all, we proved out the foundational principles of our air-launch operations — an immensely meaningful moment for us as a team and as a company. Thanks to the mountain of data collected during the first Launch Demo, we were able to quickly learn an enormous amount about what went well, what didn’t, and what might have happened later in the flight. So, as mentioned in our updates since that flight, we took a “belt and suspenders” approach when it came to implementing tweaks to LauncherOne; that is to say, fixing the obvious issues we observed — by increasing the robustness of the aft end structures, specifically — and also proactively addressing issues we didn’t observe but fell into the realm of possible contributors. Throughout that process, we’ve remained in lockstep with our friends at NASA, keeping them informed of our findings and corrective actions. We believe it’s critical to share the good and bad like. NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) were glad to have insight into our plans and appreciated our initial offer to fly another test prior to their mission. Ultimately though, they assured us that they were ready to get their payloads onboard our Launch Demo 2 flight. Our return to flight has taken a significantly shorter amount of time than is typical for new launch vehicles, which often don’t fly a second time for a year or longer. We’ve benefited hugely from our long-term planning, with a factory full of flight hardware that continues to grow every day. Following the successful execution of Launch Demo 2, Virgin Orbit intends to quickly pivot to begin serving our growing manifest of customers. With subsequent rockets already in production at our Long Beach manufacturing facility, the team is targeting a subsequent flight to space in early 2021.
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