Boeing 747 takes off for air-launch

Virgin Orbit's modified Boeing 747 took off from Mojave Air & Space Port in the Southern California desert. The cargo included satellites for the U.S. Defense Department, the Polish company Sat Revolution and the international company Spire Global. It was Virgin Orbit's third launch carrying satellites for customers.

Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit said "One of our satellites that that is going up today will be monitoring agriculture and crops around the world and so on. And you know, it is that that wonderful diversity of different organizations and different companies that have got brilliant ideas to try to use space to better things back here on Earth”.

Two previous launches carried a total of 19 satellites into orbit in January and June 2021. The company's first launch, a demonstration flight, failed in May 2020.