{"id":18461,"date":"2018-06-25T22:26:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T14:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spaceflight-launch-services-company-adds-virgin-orbit-and-cosmic-girl-to-its-lineup\/"},"modified":"2018-06-25T22:26:36","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T14:26:36","slug":"spaceflight-launch-services-company-adds-virgin-orbit-and-cosmic-girl-to-its-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spaceflight-launch-services-company-adds-virgin-orbit-and-cosmic-girl-to-its-lineup\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaceflight launch services company adds Virgin Orbit and Cosmic Girl to its lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_429618\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-429618\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-429618\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/180625-virgin-orbit-630x356.jpg\" alt=\"Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl jet\" width=\"630\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/180625-virgin-orbit-630x356.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/180625-virgin-orbit-768x434.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/180625-virgin-orbit.jpg 858w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-429618\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows Virgin Orbit\u2019s \u201cCosmic Girl\u201d 747 jet carrying a LauncherOne rocket in preparation for air launch. (Virgin Orbit Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Seattle-based Spaceflight has a new product to offer customers who want to get small satellites up and running: Virgin Orbit\u2019s air-launch system.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Orbit\u2019s system, which involves sending its two-stage LauncherOne rocket into orbit from a converted Boeing 747 jet dubbed Cosmic Girl, isn\u2019t quite ready for prime time yet. But it\u2019s due to become available soon, and when the rockets start flying, they\u2019ll offer Spaceflight\u2019s clients something that\u2019s been hard to get up to now.<\/p>\n<p>Melissa Wuerl, Spaceflight\u2019s director of business development, said her company\u2019s customers have been asking for launch opportunities that can put small satellites into low- to mid-latitude orbital inclinations that stick close to Earth\u2019s equator.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started casting about \u2026 and there just wasn\u2019t any,\u201d she told GeekWire.<\/p>\n<p>The advantage of the Virgin Orbit system is that it can launch satellites into virtually any type of orbit. Theoretically, Cosmic Girl can take off from any runway that can accommodate a 747. Once the plane reaches its target altitude of 35,000 feet, the rocket can be released pointing in any desired direction.<\/p>\n<p>That provides yet more options for Spaceflight, which makes a business out of handling the on-the-ground logistics for satellite operators looking to hitch a ride into space. So far, the Seattle company has facilitated the launches of more than 140 satellites on rockets including SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9, Orbital ATK\u2019s Antares, India\u2019s PSLV and Russia\u2019s Soyuz and Dnepr.<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight recently added Rocket Lab\u2019s Electron and Europe\u2019s Vega to its rocket rideshare offerings. Now Virgin Orbit\u2019s LauncherOne is on the menu, too.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Virgin Orbit to revolutionize small satellite launches : Dan Hart, CEO, Virgin Orbit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MPXN5JDRDiU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to provide the most options for customers to get their spacecraft into&nbsp;<span class=\"il\">orbits<\/span>&nbsp;that traditional rideshare cannot service,\u201d Spaceflight President Curt Blake said today in a news release. \u201cLauncherOne offers timely and targeted access to the equator and mid-latitudes, and we\u2019re excited to provide this innovative service to our customers via this partnership with&nbsp;<span class=\"il\">Virgin<\/span>&nbsp;<span class=\"il\">Orbit<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Orbit aims to start launching payloads of up to 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) to low Earth orbit by the end of the year. Spaceflight\u2019s memorandum of understanding with Virgin Orbit reserves a rideshare mission for early 2019, with more to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpaceflight brings a proven track record of launch success, a vibrant international customer base, and a customer-centric approach,\u201d Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said. \u201cThis agreement further propels the smallsat revolution and gets us closer to realizing our vision of launching anyone, anywhere, anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight is a service offering of Spaceflight Industries&nbsp;\u2014 and a sister company to BlackSky, which is gearing up to put an Earth-observing satellite constellation into orbit. Wuerl said it\u2019s conceivable that some of those BlackSky satellites could ride LauncherOne to their orbital destinations.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Orbit has said the cost of a launch would range somewhere around $12 million, and Spaceflight\u2019s rideshare model would spread that cost among multiple customers. Because so many variables determine what Spaceflight\u2019s customers need, Wuerl shied away from naming precise prices for launch services. However, she said the versatility of Virgin Orbit\u2019s launch system could command a premium.<\/p>\n<p>Wuerl mentioned another competitive factor: the pizazz and&nbsp;perks&nbsp;that are a specialty for British billionaire Richard Branson\u2019s Virgin brands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know it\u2019s going to be an experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows Virgin Orbit\u2019s \u201cCosmic Girl\u201d 747 jet carrying a LauncherOne rocket in preparation for air launch. (Virgin Orbit Illustration) Seattle-based Spaceflight has a new product to offer customers who want to get small satellites up and running: Virgin Orbit\u2019s air-launch system. Virgin Orbit\u2019s system, which involves sending its two-stage LauncherOne rocket into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,2340,1551],"class_list":["post-18461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-spaceflight","tag-virgin-orbit"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}