Virgin Orbit Announced To Operate LauncherOne
Virgin Galactic Announces New Commercial Space Company Virgin Orbit
“Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic are pleased to announce Virgin Orbit, a new commercial space company, and the appointment of Dan Hart as the first President of the newly created company. Virgin Orbit will offer flexible, routine and low cost launch services for small satellites via the LauncherOne system. Virgin Orbit’s activities were previously conducted as a division of Virgin Galactic.”
With SpaceX already pushing low-priced launches, Blue Origin wanting to, and ULA possibly threatening to in the future, is there room for another low-end launch provider?
The press release is a little light on details, but they seem to be talking about a Pegasus-class payload. That’s about 500 kg. Much smaller than the primary payload on a Falcon 9 and much larger than the typical secondary payload (the ESPA interface maxes out at 180 kg.) I’ve been expecting them to do something like this for years, and Virgin Galactic announced some tentative plans at one point. This sort of launch is well-suited to their existing air-launch experience and hardware. I’m just not sure how much demand there will be for launches in this class. If the orbits are compatible, you can launch several 500 kg on one Falcon 9.
This actually makes clear what the LauncherOne group in Long Beach already said more subtly, that they had nothing to do really with the human spaceflight and tourism group over at Mojave. Looks like the human spaceflight group got to keep the cool Virgin Galactic name, and the big sign at the Long Beach facility will have to be changed to Virgin Orbit.
It’s always been curious that the spaceship manufacture was it’s own legal entity as well, a way to keep incentives aligned perhaps, besides just isolating cash flow and certain decisions.
I’d wonder about another step, separating the Virgin Orbit expendable launch manufacture from the Virgin Orbit / LauncherOne entity, as this would allow the expendable manufacturing to segue into ground launched systems without being so beholden or limited to the air launch concept. Even that relatively little expendable rocket to be air launched could have some smaller payload if ground launched at a price that attracts market if the additional ground infrastructure was less on NET than the air launch functionality. The rocket, which is drawn out to scale on their factory floor at Long Beach, has to be cheap after all. It’s the foundation for moving up, beyond the limits of air launch.