Virgin Orbit's "Cosmic Girl," a retrofitted Boeing 747 plane, is scheduled for a horizontal launch into orbit Monday night from the United Kingdom's Spaceport Cornwall. The mission, dubbed Start Me Up, is the first orbital launch in both the UK and Western Europe. It's also the culmination of a yearslong effort by the country to enter the modern space race.
Cosmic Girl has a payload of nine small satellites from several customers, including the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the U.K. Ministry of Defence, and the government of Oman.
Don't expect the same fanfare as some recent space launches. Horizontal space launches are generally more seamless. Cosmic Girl will take off like a normal plane, fly to around 35,000 feet above the southern coast of Ireland, and then deploy the LauncherOne rocket.
The LauncherOne is a so-called air-launched rocket. Launched from a carrier aircraft at high altitudes, the rocket is able to deliver small payloads of satellites into orbit. Virgin Orbit developed the concept over years, and started putting it into use in 2021.
Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the UK Space Agency, has heralded the launch as an "iconic moment" — though it's not technically England's first. The agency completed a mission, called the Black Arrow, back in 1971, but the launch actually took place in Australia.
This is Virgin Orbit's sixth launch. The private space company had initially planned six for 2022, but lowered its forecast amid financial troubles. The company recently announced plans to raise $25 million to refill its shrinking cash reserves.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is quarantining himself at home after his wife exhibited flu-like symptoms. Trudeau's office said Thursday that Sophie Grégoire Trudeau returned from a speaking engagement in Britain and had mild flu-like symptoms, including a low fever late, Wednesday night.
Princess Cruises, which had one of its ships quarantined off the coast of Japan last month, is suspending global operations through early May because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dow drops more than 1,400 points, or 5.9 percent.
Seven-time Grammy Award winner Toni Braxton has partnered with Uncle Bud's CBD brand after finding the substance helped her with pain from her lupus condition.
The international body has developed a two-pronged approach in its battle against incorrect info — partnering with social media platforms to direct users to reliable sources and finding and responding to inaccurate rumors or falsehoods circulating the internet.
Stocks are tumbling again Wednesday, and indexes lost more than 4 percent to wipe out their huge gains from a day earlier as Wall Street keeps reeling on worries about the coronavirus.
World Health Organization declares COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, March 11, 2020.
Lenore Hawkins, chief macro strategist at Tematica Research, told Cheddar from Lake Como, Italy, that the local populace seems to be taking the directives to stay indoors seriously.
The Earth's average temperature last year was about 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, second only to the record established in 2016.
