The California-based company — part of British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group — mated a LauncherOne rocket with its carrier plane, a modified 747 jet called Cosmic Girl, at Long Beach Airport on Wednesday (Oct. 24).

"The team were carrying out the integration check of the rocket with Cosmic Girl to verify [that] mechanical, electrical, software and dynamics all work together for the first time," Branson wrote in a blog post today (Oct. 26). "It's an incredibly exciting moment for us, as Virgin Orbit's first test flights move ever closer."