LONG BEACH >> With thousands of aerospace jobs dissolving over the next several months, Long Beach received some good news Thursday: Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial space flight company, announced that it will design and build its LauncherOne satellite launch vehicles in the space that once housed the production of Boeing Co. planes.

The move is expected to create at least 100 jobs initially, with an expansion planned to hire local talent, sources said. Virgin Galactic will host a job fair and open house on March 7, when the company will start transitioning people into the facility.

Virgin Galactic, the privately funded space company owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJS, plans to open a 150,000-square-foot facility at Douglas Park in East Long Beach.

“The technical progress our team has made designing and testing LauncherOne has enabled a move into a dedicated facility to produce the rocket at quantity,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said in a statement. “With New Mexico’s magnificent Spaceport America for our commercial spaceflight operations, our Mojave facilities for WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo production, and now our new facility in Long Beach for LauncherOne, we are building capability to serve our expanding customer community.”

Branson’s company first announced plans to build LauncherOne in 2012. According to the Associated Press, LauncherOne, which is expected to begin operations in 2016, would send small satellites into space in a cost-effective way and can carry up to 500 pounds.

“Paired with purpose-built small satellites, LauncherOne will enable scientists to tackle global, environmental challenges with unprecedented speed and precision,” Branson said in a 2012 YouTube video. “New space businesses will be able to get into operation quickly and cheaply. Nations, states, cities and even universities and schools will be able to launch dedicated satellites that will answer their diverse needs, opening up space to everyone (and) will allow us to see, experience and benefit from it.”

Virgin Galactic said small satellite manufacturers and operators are already taking interest in the launcher, including OneWeb project, which is designed to bring broadband services to parts of the world not served by terrestrial networks.

The launch market for small satellites is dominated by the Hawthorne-based rocket manufacturer SpaceX and Europe’s Arianespace, which is based in France. Each company took nine payloads into orbit in 2014, or 90 percent of all commercial launches last year.

SpaceX, which also has a contract with NASA to shuttle cargo to and from the International Space Station, announced in January that it plans to open a satellite factory near Seattle.

Marco Caceres, senior space analyst for Teal Group Corp., said there is a growing market for the launching of smaller satellites, especially for colleges who will now be able to share in the cost of a single launch of 10 to 20 satellites.

“It’s a good thing for the industry because it forces traditional players to find ways to reduce costs to remain competitive,” Caceres said. “It also creates new customers that never imagined that they could afford to launch tiny satellites.”

For Long Beach, which has long been home to aerospace and aviation giants such as Boeing Co., the announcement brings good paying jobs to a city that is seeing the loss of high wage earners from the closure of Boeing’s C-17 military airlifter manufacturing plant.

“Virgin Galactic is exactly the type of company and brand we want to attract,” Mayor Robert Garcia said. “The new partnership reinforces our commitment to an economy of the future and good paying local jobs.

“It will be a critical new tool for the global research community, enabling us all to learn about our home planet more quickly and affordably,” he said.

Company spokesman Will Pomerantz said in an email that Virgin Galactic chose Long Beach because it needed a large building near an airport.

“But we also needed access to a great talent pool. Long Beach’s excellent tradition of aviation and aerospace excellence was certainly a key part of our decision,” he said.

Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, lauded the news and Virgin Galactic’s commitment to the region and the state.

“This proves again that Southern California has the tools, the skills and the talent to push not only the bounds of technology, but in this case, the bounds of Earth itself,” Lowenthal said.

Virgin Galactic is the latest business development to come to Douglas Park, a prime piece of East Long Beach real estate that was once home to Boeing’s manufacturing facilities, including the 717 plant before it was shuttered in 2006.

Now a diversity of businesses will operate from the once exclusive aerospace site. In March, Long Beach-based Urbana Development broke ground on land that will become Douglas Park Medical Office Park, where Long Beach Gastroenterology Associates and its affiliate, Greater Long Beach Endoscopy Center/Surgical Care Affiliates, and Laser Skin Care Center Dermatology Associates will occupy the spaces.

In June, Mercedes-Benz began construction on a new facility in the former 717 site. The company’s nearly 1.1 million-square-foot space, which is expected to be fully operational early next year, will corral about 200 workers from the company’s three operations — its vehicle preparation center, learning and performance center and Western Region sales offices, a 12-state territory that stretches from Alaska to Montana.

Visit virgingalactic.com in the coming days for more on job prospects and about the open house.

Staff writer Jordan England-Nelson contributed to this report. Contact Karen Robes Meeks at 562-714-2088.