Live coverage: Virgin Orbit’s air-launched rocket to deploy seven smallsats in orbit

Virgin Orbit aims to build on two successful small satellite launches last year with another flight of its air-dropped rocket Thursday off the coast of California, this time carrying seven mini-payloads into low Earth orbit. The company’s Boeing 747 carrier aircraft departed Mojave Air and Space Port and released the LauncherOne rocket to begin its climb into orbit at 2:52 p.m. PST (5:52 p.m. EST; 2252 GMT).