Virgin Atlantic Airways ‘Cosmic Girl’ B747-41R

Virgin Atlantic Airways ‘Cosmic Girl’ Boeing 747-41R [G-VWOW] Landing and TakeoffThis is the 1287th Boeing 747 built. It was delivered to VS in 2001. Fairly young 744, about 12 years old… named Cosmic Girl.

The plane, dubbed “Cosmic Girl,” was formerly used by sister company Virgin Atlantic to fly passengers from Europe to the United States. In its second life, it will launch unmanned rockets carrying small satellites into earth orbit. Cosmic Girl will carry the satellite and the small rocket, dubbed LauncherOne, under its left wing. After reaching its top altitude, the rocket will detach and fall away from the plane. The rocket’s engine will then ignite to get the rest of the way into space. The horizontal launch from a plane is also how Virgin Galactic plans to carry space tourists into short suborbital fights into outer space. But a different, specially designed plane will carry the manned missions, and those flights will not reach orbit the way the satellites do.