Virgin Galactic Announce Four Launch Contract With Australian Company Sky and Space Global

Virgin Galactic recently announced a contract regarding four satellite launches with the Australian company Sky and Space Global. The contract covers launch of multiple satellites on each of the four LauncherOne missions.

Officials from the companies revealed at the World Satellite Business Week event in Paris that these flights will facilitate the deployment of Sky and Space Global's primary constellation. Though the terms of the deal had not been disclosed, Virgin Galactic has earlier offered LauncherOne missions for a little less than $10 million each.

The launch will be among the first LauncherOne mission into the low-inclination orbits. The rocket's carrier aircraft will be a Boeing 747. The location of the take off airport was not disclosed in the announcement, according to space.com

"Having a 747 as our flying carrier means that LauncherOne can tailor each mission as per the demands of each customer," George Whitesides CEO, Virgin Galactic said. "We all are very excited to have this agreement with Sky and Space Global to allow us deliver their satellites to orbit affordably, reliably and flexibly."

Virgin Galactic at the event also announced its capability to fly LauncherOne from low latitudes that will allow the customers to maximize the amount of payload to be delivered to the low inclination orbit. Usually the ground-based launch vehicles must spend their significant amounts of performance to send spacecraft to inclinations from the latitude of the launch site. In contrast to this, LauncherOne can optimize each of its mission to customer requirements so as to most efficiently insert satellites into the low inclination orbits, reports spacedaily.com .

LauncherOne contracts that were previously disclosed are designed to fly to the higher inclination orbits which include the flights for OneWeb and NASA. The four launches that are purchased by Sky and Space Global are to be used to carry multiple satellites for rapidly establishing the company's innovative communication system infrastructure and service.

The totally-funded LauncherOne program is presently in its advanced phase of hardware testing with hundreds of millions of dollars of launches under contract. Virgin Galactic has also already established a 150,000 square foot manufacturing shop in Long Beach, California, comprising a team of more than 200 experienced aerospace professionals. The flights are expected to be launched in 2018.