Virgin Orbit Launch Attempt Ends Without Trip to Space

Virgin Galactic, which has now become a publicly traded company, is separate from Virgin Orbit.

Orbital Sciences, now part of Northrop Grumman, developed a similar air-launched rocket called Pegasus, which first flew in 1990. Most recently, it launched a NASA satellite, the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, to orbit in October. But in recent years, Northrop Grumman has found few customers interested in Pegasus, which costs several times more than LauncherOne.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/science/virgin-orbit-launch-time.html