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.
Bond yields fell to more record lows as investors continue to demand safety and unload stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank as low as 0.66% as investors worried that economic damage from the spreading virus outbreak will be worse than previously thought.
Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University said taking steps like sanitizing the subway system "may play a small role in mitigating the transmission of this virus, but it signals to people that we ought to be functioning as we can and doing the things we can do."
Stocks are falling sharply again in midday trading on Wall Street, and bond yields are sinking to more record lows on worries about the economic damage coming from the spreading coronavirus outbreak.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, March 6, 2020.
Stocks and bond yields fell sharply Thursday as fears about fallout from the virus outbreak sent more shudders through markets.
The Senate has passed an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak in hopes of reassuring a fearful public and accelerating the government's response.
Danone's Horizon Organic, the largest organic dairy brand in the world, is committing to becoming carbon positive by 2025. Its goal is to become the first national dairy brand to be carbon positive across its full supply chain.
Scrambling to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials have ordered a cruise ship to hold off the California coast to await testing of those aboard, after a passenger on an earlier voyage died and at least one other became infected.
Stocks are falling in midday trading on Wall Street, erasing 2 percent from major indexes, a day after they surged 4 percent as the mood swings back to fear about economic fallout from the virus outbreak.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, March 5, 2020.
