Virgin Orbit announced that its retrofitted Boeing 747 departed from Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY) late Friday evening, marking the commencement of a scheduled rehearsal flight. Nicknamed Cosmic Girl, the aircraft is designed to send satellites to space in an affordable and accessible way. The announcement comes as the airline looks to ensure the plane's safety and functionality in preparation for an actual satellite launch.The rehearsal flight took off at 19:28 local time and landed at 22:30.

Another way to launch satellites

Cosmic Girl is a retired Boeing 747 passenger jet that has been modified to carry a 31-ton rocket in the hopes of making satellite launches more affordable and accessible. The aircraft works by carrying a rocket to an altitude of 30,000 feet, at which point the rocket detaches, propels itself into space, and offloads its cargo. Although it sounds simple, the procedure relies heavily on a retrofit that enables the 747 to carry a rocket underneath its wing and perform certain essential maneuvers. Virgin Orbit hopes to use it to revolutionize the way that satellites are launched into space.

Furthermore, Cosmic Girl is a considerably more sustainable method of sending satellites to space when compared to the traditional approach of launching a rocket from the ground because it requires far less fuel to be burned.

A concept 7 years in the making

Although the origins of the Cosmic Girl project date back to 2015, the aircraft in question was commissioned in 2001 and operated as a passenger jet in Virgin Atlantic's fleet for 14 years. However, the concept of sending a satellite to space via a plane has only come to fruition in the past year following two key successes, the first of which took place on October 25th when Virgin Orbit attached a rocket to Cosmic Girl for the very first time and the second on November 19th when the aircraft completed its first test flight and proved that it could fly with a rocket attached.

As a result of its recent successes, Cosmic Girl has landed VOX Space (a Virgin subsidiary) a $35 million contract with the United States Department of Defense.

Get the latest aviation news straight to your inbox: Sign up for our newsletters today.

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl ultimately has the potential to revolutionize the way that satellites are launched, and its recent rehearsal flight at Newquay is just the latest in a series of successful test flights that have already landed Virgin a $35 million contract. Businesses and government entities alike that are looking to send satellites to space in the future will no doubt be watching the Cosmic Girl project closely to see if it might be a viable and less expensive alternative to the traditional approach, and the next few months will certainly be telling in that regard.