LauncherOne flight: May 25, 2020

Virgin Orbit attempted their first LauncherOne orbital test flight. The 747 "Cosmic Girl" lifted off from Mojave Airport with LauncherOne and flew offshore for the drop. Unfortunately, a malfunction occurred shortly after the rocket ignited. I didn't stick around for it, but Cosmic Girl later returned to Mojave and landed uneventfully.

(9:37a)	LOX loading in progress	pIMG_1174.JPG	pIMG_1177.JPG
(11:32a)	pIMG_1192.JPG	pIMG_1198.JPG	(11:41a) Towing in progress
pIMG_1207.JPG	(11:47a) Chase plane takes off	pIMG_1217.JPG	pIMG_1218.JPG
pIMG_1223.JPG	pIMG_1228.JPG	(11:53a) Headed to an intersection departure at Taxiway J	pIMG_1238.JPG
(11:55a) Cosmic Girl on the runway	pIMG_1245.JPG	(11:56a) Liftoff!	pIMG_1253.JPG
pIMG_1254.JPG	pIMG_1264.JPG	pIMG_1273.JPG	pIMG_1278.JPG
pIMG_1288.JPG	pIMG_1302.JPG	(12:02p)

After watching Cosmic Girl fly away, I dropped by the Victorville airport (Southern California Logistics Center) to have a look at their airplane parking lot. Runway 3-21 has been reappropriated for parking. I counted over 100 each of Southwest and Delta jets in flyable storage on the runway and taxiways, plus over 200 more in the boneyard.

pIMG_1330.JPG	pIMG_1334.JPG	pIMG_1338.JPG	pIMG_1346.JPG
pIMG_1351.JPG	cIMG_1368.JPG	pIMG_1390.JPG	pIMG_1394.JPG
pIMG_1398.JPG	pIMG_1417.JPG	pIMG_1428.JPG