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Spirit of Mojave

Spirit of Mojave
Virgin Orbit 747 Cosmic Girl (currently named, Spirit of Mojave) at Long Beach Airport
Other name(s)
  • Cosmic Girl (2001 – 2023; with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit)
  • Spirit of Mojave (2023 – onwards; with StratoLaunch)
Type Boeing 747-41R 44/32/310[1][2][3]
Manufacturer Boeing
Construction number 32745[2][3]
Manufactured 2001[1]
Registration
  • G-VWOW (2001 – 2015; with Virgin Atlantic)[1]
  • N744VG (2015 – onwards; with Virgin Galactic[4] and Virgin Orbit and Stratolaunch[5])
First flight 29 September 2001[2]
Owners and operators
In service
  • 2001 – October 2015 (Virgin Atlantic)[6]
  • November 2015 – October 2017 (Virgin Galactic)[4]
  • October 2017 – May 2023 (Virgin Orbit)[5]
  • May 2023 - onwards (StratoLaunch)[5]
Status Expected to be refit to launch Stratolaunch's Talon.
Aircraft carried LauncherOne orbital rocket

Spirit of Mojave, previously Cosmic Girl is a Boeing 747-400 aircraft. A former passenger airliner operated by Virgin Atlantic, it was purchased by Virgin Galactic in 2015 to be used as the first stage launch platform (or mothership launch pad) for the air launch stage of the smallsat orbital launch vehicle, the LauncherOne. In 2017, the aircraft was transferred to the orbital launch subsidiary, Virgin Orbit, and its livery updated to Virgin Orbit. LauncherOne attempted its first launch on 25 May 2020; the launch was a failure. The first successful launch (second launch in total) took place on 17 January 2021.

Its parent, Virgin Orbit, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 4, 2023. It was subsequently sold at auction to Stratolaunch to complement their existing Roc launch platform for their Talon Hypersonic testbed vehicle.[7] It is renamed as "Spirit of Mojave".[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference VirginAtlantic-fleet-2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference PlaneSpotters was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference AirFleets was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference NASAspaceflight.com-2015-12-04 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference WALN-2017-10-10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference SpaceNews-2015-12-04 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ "Virgin Orbit To Close After Assets Divided Among Four Bankruptcy Bidders | Aviation Week Network". aviationweek.com. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
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