Planetary Resources and Virgin Galactic announced a new partnership Wednesday to launch a small swarm of telescopes aboard a new launcher from Virgin.

Virgin's new launcher is to be called LauncherOne. It appears to leverage some of the hardware already developed for SpaceShipTwo, Virgin's suborbital tourist vehicle. Like SpaceShipTwo, the new rocket rides up underneath Virgin's big carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, to about 50,000 feet. After release, the rocket drops for approximately four seconds before the first stage ignites. After the first stage burns out, a second stage takes the satellite to orbit.

Virgin hopes to provide fresh competition in the small launch market and give Planetary Resources a cheaper way to launch their spacecraft. "I believe this vehicle will create a long overdue shake-up of the whole satellite industry, disrupting current norms and limitations in exactly the way that SpaceShipTwo has for human space travel and space-based science research," Richard Branson said at this week's Farnborough Air Show. He went on to claim that LauncherOne has the largest initial order book of any new launch vehicle in history.

These prices are insane!

After Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne won the first X-Prize in 2004, Virgin Galactic and Burt Rutan partnered in forming a new spaceship company creatively entitled The Spaceship Company. TSC, as it is more often known, was put in charge of developing the various technologies necessary for SpaceShipTwo. TSC would also manufacture spacecraft and sell them not only to Virgin Galactic but other customers.

Since then, TSC has been quietly working on several projects. LauncherOne appeared in the press as early as 2008, but four years have been required to assemble all the pieces. The company is working on a second and third WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, two for Virgin and one for Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aerospace company. And of course, there's SpaceShipTwo.

Over the last several years, a strong demand has developed for getting small satellites (under 1000 pounds) to orbit more cheaply. Satellite manufacturers can mass-produce small satellites, bringing the costs down and expanding the satellite market. Customers want small satellites because they're cheaper to launch, and they can now accomplish the same task that required a very large satellite a few years ago.

Earth observation companies have been popping up to launch constellations much like the communications constellations that began going up a decade ago. And of course there's Planetary Resources, which wants to launch a constellation of space telescopes that looks outward from Earth in order to map resources on near-Earth asteroids.

Although the satellites are waiting, the cost of launching them has remained high. Launch cost on a rideshared rocket (wherein they piggyback along with several other satellites) remains at around $10M. Launch aboard a dedicated vehicle like Orbital Sciences' struggling Pegasus XL rocket runs about twice that. Pegasus can launch up to 980 pounds to LEO. While it's one of the cheapest dedicated launchers, it's also one of the most expensive on a per pound basis, at about $20,000.

LauncherOne seems to be targeting the bottom half of Pegasus-sized payloads, but they quote prices "below $10M" in their press release. This could give the market a much-needed shot in the arm, assuming Orbital Sciences would be able to both lower its prices and make a profit. Including other services or a satellite platform for that price might sweeten the deal.

Why launch a rocket from an airplane?

A typical communications satellite orbits the Earth at about 500 miles. The WhiteKnightTwo's launching altitude of 50,000 feet is less than 9 1/2 miles, or about two percent of the trip. Designing and building a large aircraft doesn't seem like a very cost-effective method to launch a rocket. But there are still lots of good reasons to do it that way.

One of them is that using launch ranges like Wallops (in Virginia) or Kennedy is extremely expensive, with a plethora of tight restrictions and long delays. Air launching allows users to avoid these hassles. Air launches can also be done from almost any place that has a runway. It also means the WhiteKnightTwo can, in theory, fly to where the satellite is, even if it's in another country, and a launch can take place on very short notice.

The carrier aircraft can be pointed in any direction, whether toward a horizon, toward a pole, or neither. That means a large variety of orbits are available no matter where the satellite is launched.

The bottom line is that air launches can save a lot of money on range costs and make the whole business more flexible. The downside is that rockets are extremely heavy when they're loaded with propellants, so unless we build giant aircraft, air launches are limited to small rockets designed to launch small satellites.

Now with instant customers!

The new vehicle already has no shortage of customers waiting to launch. They included GeoOptics, SpaceFlight Inc., Skybox Imaging, and Planetary Resources. Sierra Nevada Space Systems (producer of Dream Chaser) and Surrey Satellite Technology will create specialized designs for LauncherOne.

Virgin had other significant announcements at Farnborough. SpaceShipTwo's major components have all now been qualified, meaning that the craft can be tested and could be ready for passengers some time next year. Fully 529 deposits have been taken.

Virgin also revealed that LauncherOne's engines burn liquid oxygen with kerosene, possibly meaning that TSC has developed a new engine capable of providing the foundation for even more vehicles. According to an article at Aviation Week, the new liquid-fueled engine will eventually replace the hybrid engine currently used on SpaceShipTwo. That engine has been heavily played up on Virgin's website, but it's also rumored to be the reason for SpaceShipTwo's nine-year development time.

Much of the new development is being funded by Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm owned by International Petroleum Investment Company, which is in turn owned by the government of United Arab Emirates. Former Spaceport America director Steve Landeene has left New Mexico to build a new spaceport in Abu Dhabi, and the country is putting significant effort and funding toward becoming a player in space development. Abu Dhabi also holds exclusive regional rights to Virgin launches. Virgin founder Richard Branson pointed effusively to Aabar, which owns just over a third of Virgin Galactic, as a major reason the company is able to move forward.

Branson was visibly brimming with anticipation in his address at Farnborough. "As you can imagine, that immediately gets me thinking about LauncherTwo, SpaceShipThree, and who knows… Space Station Alpha. But one step at a time, LauncherOne is exciting enough for today." The introductory video on the Virgin Galactic website ends with yet another catchy Branson Virgin play. "We're making it happen because space is Virgin territory!"