Virgin Galactic announced significant performance increase to its LauncherOne satellite launch service, at the annual World Business Sat...
Virgin Galactic announced significant performance increase to its LauncherOne satellite launch service, at the annual World Business Satellite Week in Paris on Monday.
Virgin Galactic has nearly doubled the amount of payload that customers can deliver to orbit for the same price on its LauncherOne launch vehicle that will cater to the small satellite market.
For a price below US $10 million, LauncherOne will now be able to launch 200 kg into the standard Sun-Synchronous Orbit most commonly desired by small satellite missions, a marked increase from the system’s originally projected performance to that orbit.
Customers will also be able to purchase further increases in performance to the same orbit, as well as launches that reach other altitudes or inclinations. To lower LEO orbits, the system will be capable of launching over 400 kg of payload.
Virgin says the demand has become so significant that LauncherOne will have its own dedicated launch aircraft. Virgin Galactic is in the final stages of acquiring a commercial aircraft to add to its air launch fleet, which includes WhiteKnightTwo, enabling both the increased payload capacity and significantly higher flight rate. The company expects to finalize the acquisition in the coming months.
With a dedicated carrier aircraft and strong technical results achieved in an intensive hardware component testing campaign that began in 2013, this performance increase has been achieved by increasing the tank sizing of the rocket, maintaining schedule and launch price while significantly increasing value to customers.
With full, private funding already committed to the program, a dedicated and world-class team of 150 experienced aerospace professionals hard at work, and a state-of-the-art 14,000 m2 (150,000 square foot) manufacturing and design facility in Long Beach, California,
As an air-launched system, LauncherOne can optimize each mission to customer requirements by operating from any of a variety of launch sites independent from the fixed, often congested, launch ranges and corresponding real-time launch constraints such as weather.
Rather than launching from a traditional launch pad at a spaceport, LauncherOne is launched from a dedicated carrier aircraft, at an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet. Starting each mission with an airplane rather than a traditional launch pad offers performance benefits in terms of payload capacity, but more importantly, air-launch offers an unparalleled level of flexibility.
Once released from the carrier aircraft, the LauncherOne rocket fires up its single main stage engine, a 73,500 lbf, LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called the “NewtonThree.” Typically, this engine will fire for approximately three minutes.
After stage separation, the single upper stage engine, a 5,000 lbf LOX/RP-1 rocket engine called the “NewtonFour” will carry the satellite(s) into orbit. Typically, the second stage will execute multiple burns totaling nearly six minutes. Both the NewtonThree and the NewtonFour are highly reliable liquid rocket engines designed, tested, and built by Virgin Galactic.
