On January 17, 2021 at 18:38 UTC, Virgin Orbit’s 747 carrier aircraft (Boeing-747-400 ‘Cosmic Girl’) took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California with the nearly 29-ton LauncherOne rocket mounted under its left wing. Piloted by Kelly Latimer, a former U.S. Air Force test pilot, the 747 jumbo jet entered a steep climb of more than 25 degrees just before the crew sent the command to drop the 21-meter-long rocket around 35 000 feet (10 700 meters) over the Pacific Ocean off the coast Southern California at 19:39 UTC. An air-launched rocket built by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached orbit for the first time, delivering 10 experimental CubeSats for NASA and positioning the company for the start of commercial operations.

On January 14, 2021 at 01:26 UTC the "Dragon” capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Florida. It was the "SpaceX CRS-21” mission. CRS means Commercial Resupply Services. It was the first flight of the new generation of Dragon cargo capsules also known SpaceX Dragon 2 or Cargo Dragon 2. It was the 21st flight of Cargo Dragon to the ISS with docking, including a demonstration flight in 2012.