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.