Virgin Orbit rang in the New Year this week with the successful launch of its LauncherOne rocket, which deployed seven customer satellites in a mission called “Above the Clouds.”
The spinoff from Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic venture launches payloads into space not with rocket liftoffs from the ground but by air-launching its LauncherOne rocket from the Cosmic Girl Boeing 747-400 aircraft at high altitude.
The goal is to increase the flexibility of where, when and how often small-satellite launches can take place.
For this mission, Cosmic Girl took off from Mojave Air and Space Port on Thursday at 1:39 p.m. Pacific time. The LauncherOne rocket was released about 50 miles south of the Channel Islands and then ignited. It delivered its payload — including satellites for Spire Global Inc. and repeat customers the U.S. Department of Defense Space Test Program and SatRevolution — about 300 miles above the Earth’s surface at 45 degrees inclination.
Virgin Orbit’s unique air-launch system enabled the company to reach this particular orbit from the West Coast for the first time ever.
Thursday’s mission came less than a year since Virgin Orbit’s first successful launch and marked the company’s third successful flight so far.
The launch also comes after the Long Beach aerospace company went public via reverse merger last month. Virgin Orbit has been trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “VORB” since Dec. 30.
Here’s what else L.A.-area tech companies got up to this week:
- El Segundo’s direct-to-consumer healthcare apparel brand Jaanuu has secured a $75 million minority investment from Eurazeo, bring the company’s total financing to approximately $100 million.
- Quid Capital Group, the Los Angeles fin-tech firm that loans cash to startup employees using their equity as collateral, has raised another $74 million, per an SEC filing.
- Fan Controlled Football (FCF), the Los Angeles-based professional sports league that enables fans to make the key decisions for their favorite team, including calling all the plays in real-time, has closed a $40 million Series A investment round led by Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital.
- Irvine-based Bluon, an app that offers tools, training and 24/7 tech support to HVAC-R technicians in the field, has secured $27.6 million in equity financing to develop an e-commerce platform, particularly software development and growth across its sales and technician support teams.
- After betting on the jackpot Honey, Santa Monica venture capital firm Wonder Ventures has raised a $31 million fund focused on early-stage Los Angeles startups.
- West Hollywood’s AmazeVR has closed a $15 million round of funding to fulfill its vision for virtual reality concerts, starting with a VR concert tour headlined by Megan Thee Stallion in select AMC Theatres this spring.
- On-demand, app-enabled childcare platform Brella has raised $5 million in a seed round led by Toba Capital and Halogen Ventures, bringing the Playa Vista company's total funding to $8 million.
- HeyRenee, the Los Angeles-based personal health concierge from the founders of Heal, has closed an oversubscribed $4.4 million seed II funding round led by Quiet Capital, bringing its total financing to $8.2 million and tripling its valuation in five months.
- Los Angeles-based Masters has raised $2.7 million to help users train with world-class athletes in four-week fitness and mind programs.
- Flippy the kitchen robot is expanding its Pasadena digs. Miso Robotics, which makes artificial-intelligence-driven robots that assist restaurants in food preparation, has leased nearly 33,000 square feet of office and lab space in Pasadena.
- Culver City’s CreatorIQ has been named an official TikTok Marketing Partner — marking TikTok’s first SaaS-only influencer marketing platform partner.
