Virgin Galactic is proud to announce LauncherOne, a revolutionary new launch vehicle dedicated to enabling dramatically more people and users to benefit from space. The technology that goes into manufacturing satellites has come a long way since the days of Sputnik and Explorer I. With many satellite components following the Moore’s Law curve of exponential technological improvement, satellites today are able to do so much more with so much less. Innovators in government labs, private companies, and universities have shown the world that even the smallest of satellites can accomplish significant things, and can transform the way we use spacecraft to improve life here on Earth. Small, inexpensive satellites are incredibly appealing both to new entities looking to undertake their first space missions and to established satellite users feeling the reality of fixed or declining budgets. But small satellites cannot reach their full effectiveness without a launch vehicle optimized for their particular needs and capabilities. Virgin Galactic is dedicated to dramatically reducing the price of getting to space. Already, we’ve built a new generation of reusable spacecraft designed to carry astronauts on suborbital flights; we’re very proud that more than 500 of them have already paid deposits on the experience of a lifetime. Thanks to the support of our customers and our private investors, we’ve built the world’s first commercial spaceline, and have assembled the team and the infrastructure necessary to do so. Now, we are leveraging that background to build and operate a new vehicle designed to give satellite operators a radically better option for carrying their small satellites into orbit. By using much of the same infrastructure originally created to support SpaceShipTwo—in particular, our unique, high-performance mothership, the WhiteKnightTwo –we can keep prices low while accommodating customer needs for launch availability and flexibility. It’s a winning combination, and we are thrilled to bring it to market.We’re very excited to announce that we have already signed up several customers, and soon you’ll be able to learn more about them and about our launch manifest. You can contact us with serious inquiries about how you can use LauncherOne, or you can look through job openings to see if you might be a good fit to join our team.
