Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Eric Berger

Clad in designer jeans, black leather jacket, and white shirt open at the collar, a characteristically ebullient Sir Richard Branson bounded onto the stage inside an airy hangar at the San Antonio airport on Thursday. After scanning the audience for a moment, he turned his back to the crowd and stared up at the large 747-400 aircraft behind him. “My God,” he said. “It’s fantastic.”

For the first time, Virgin Galactic has revealed the aircraft it intends to use to boost small satellites weighing up to 450kg into orbit, perhaps before the end of 2017. Branson, the charismatic founder of the company, said he hoped that by bringing down the cost of satellite launches he could enable global satellite Internet and bring connectivity to the more than 3 billion people without access to the Web.

Ars was on hand during the reveal, which showcased the aircraft now destined to carry the “LauncherOne” rocket to an altitude of 35,000 feet before releasing it at a 25-degree upward angle. The rocket's Newton 3 engine will then blast its payload into any number of possible orbits around the Earth. Virgin Galactic assessed a variety of aircraft before settling on a 14-year-old 747 from its own fleet nicknamed “Cosmic Girl.” That airplane continued to fly normal routes until October 23, most frequently carrying passengers from London’s Heathrow to JFK in New York City to San Francisco.

LauncherOne is Virgin Galactic’s entry into the increasingly hot small-satellite market. Already, the company has signed a major contract with OneWeb to launch 39 communications satellites using the LauncherOne platform. OneWeb is seeking to deliver broadband satellite Internet. In October, Virgin Galactic also won a $4.7 million contract from NASA to launch more than a dozen cutting-edge experimental satellites for the space agency. George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said Thursday the company will be able to deliver 200kg satellites to a Sun-synchronous orbit for less than $10 million, with larger satellites costing more.

Founded in 2004, the company is best known for its development of SpaceShipTwo, a venture to offer suborbital spaceflights to would-be space tourists. By 2014 more than 600 people had signed up for tickets that cost $250,000, but then, in October of that year a co-pilot error caused a fatal breakup and crash of the space plane during a test flight.

Since then Virgin Galactic has put an increased focus on its LauncherOne business. Both parts of the company are predicated on launching a rocket from an airplane as the first stage of reaching orbit. Whitesides said LauncherOne is now as critical as SpaceShipTwo. “I really think it’s 50-50,” he said. “It’s that important. We view this as an equal business focus now for this company, and that’s reflected in the underlying capital that’s flowing into the two business areas.”

The “Cosmic Girl” aircraft made its final commercial flight into San Antonio’s airport because that’s where VT San Antonio Aerospace, which repairs and modifies aircraft, is based. During the next year the aircraft will undergo extensive testing and modifications, including the strengthening of its wings to support a 25,000kg rocket. Virgin Galactic intends to move the aircraft to Mojave, California, for further testing in early 2017. If all goes well it plans to begin launching satellites later that year.

While the company has explored flights from other spaceports across the United States, its primary base of operations will be in Mojave, in the desert north of the Los Angeles area. To make a standard launch the aircraft will fly to the west, about 50 miles off the coast of California, before releasing its payload at 35,000 feet.

Virgin Galactic will be competing with other companies also developing launch systems for small satellites. Even as the Cosmic Girl is being modified in San Antonio next year, just 150km north on Interstate 35, a rocket company called Firefly Systems will be continuing development of its own small rockets. Firefly has said that by 2018 its Alpha rocket could launch 200kg payloads into Sun-synchronous orbit for $8 million.

But on Thursday Branson seemed assured of his company’s success as he strode beneath the 747’s massive left wing and told stories about how he’d gotten into the airline business. He recalled meeting with Boeing executives in the 1980s who questioned his choice of name—would customers be concerned that the airline wouldn’t be able to go all the way? “Not my joke,” Branson added.

The biggest advantage Virgin Galactic had, Branson said, was speed and flexibility. Unlike with rocket launches and their weather and range constraints, 747s could fly in almost any conditions—and with minimal preparations. “Imagine,” he told the audience. “We could literally, on 24 hours' notice, be taking off and putting a satellite into whatever orbit you want.”

That, at least, is the vision. First the company must modify the aircraft it showed off in San Antonio and finish developing the LauncherOne rocket. But the vision itself is pretty darn compelling.

Listing image by Eric Berger