In between pumpkin carving and grabbing mouthfuls of candy, we've taken some huge leaps forward on the road to Launch Demo 2, checking off a number of big technical milestones this October. 

One of our biggest triumphs was LauncherOne's adventure out to our Mojave test site and back. While there, hanging from a test stand meant to emulate Cosmic Girl's wing, the rocket was loaded with propellants like cryogenic liquid oxygen to verify the health of all systems. In all respects, the test was a big success — and even more so when compared to our previous run prior to our first Launch Demo. 

We saw a similar quantum leap with the other build and test series we recently completed: acceptance testing (ATP) for our main stage NewtonThree engine. Given all the lessons learned from our first launch attempt, this campaign was of particular importance. But we got through it extremely quickly and efficiently: work that took us two months to complete one launch ago was finished in just two weeks this time around.

Still, our work isn't done just yet. Now, both rocket and engine are back in our Long Beach manufacturing facility for a final series of hardware installations and checkouts. By early November, we'll take the whole system — payloads, ground support equipment and the rocket itself — back out to Mojave Air and Space Port, where once again we'll turn a bare taxiway into our launch site.

Hear directly from some of our technical leaders below on what we've been up to since our last flight, and why we're feeling more confident than ever about the future of LauncherOne.

This month, we put our Nebula cleanroom to good use, with representatives from each payload team on Launch Demo 2 arriving in Long Beach to get their spacecraft processed for flight. The cast of characters ranged from young students to satellite vets, and together, our teams completed final checkouts on each satellite before loading them into their dispensers.

In total, LauncherOne will carry 10 CubeSats from 9 teams hand-selected by NASA, with each satellite designed and built by students across the U.S. This flight also marks the 20th flight in the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNaXX) mission series.

All of these payloads are now being integrated into our rocket's fairing (seen in the background above). In just a matter of weeks, we'll load the LauncherOne fairing into our mobile cleanroom and send it up to Mojave to meet the rest of the hardware. We'll mate the fairing to the rocket right there on-site — and then we're off to orbit. 

Applications for the Black Leaders in Aerospace Scholarship and Training (BLAST) program are now OPEN! This is a fantastic opportunity for Black college students interested in STEM/aerospace careers, and we're so proud to be a part of it alongside our friends at Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company.

Although Black people make up ~13% of the US population, just 3.6% of all undergrad engineering degrees were earned by Black students in 2016. This is indicative of a broader trend that extends through the entire space industry as a whole. Since its inception, the space industry has suffered from a lack of diversity — and BLAST is just one way folks are working to help balance the scales for the new generation of space lovers.

On top of a $5,000 scholarship award, BLAST perks include a year-long mentorship with a bonafide space pro, a paid summer internship at one of the program's partner companies (a list that includes Virgin Orbit), and more.