The launch will be the first since its Launch Demo 2 mission in January, which carried 10 CubeSats for NASAs Venture Class Launch Services programme.
Virgin Orbit has scheduled its next LauncherOne mission carrying payloads for the US Department of Defense, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and SatRevolution in June.
The launch will take place at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California and will be the first since Virgin Orbits successful Launch Demo 2 mission in January, which carried 10 CubeSats for NASAs Venture Class Launch Services programme. The LauncherOne vehicle will take its payloads to a destination circular orbit at 500 km, 60 degrees inclination. Virgin has named the mission Tubular Bells, Part One after the first track on the first album ever released by Virgin Records.
The US Department of Defense is launching three CubeSat sets on Tubular Bells, Part One as part of its Space Test Programmes (STP) Rapid Agile Launch (RALI) Initiative. The Royal Netherlands Air Force is sending the Netherlands first military satellite, a CubeSat called BRIK II, to space. SatRevolution is launching the first two optical satellites, STORK-4 and STORK-5 (A.K.A. MARTA), of the companys 14-satellite STORK constellation.
