Seven satellites from three different customers were launched into low-earth orbit by the Virgin Orbit delivery system, part of the family of companies of billionaire Richard Branson.
The orbital launch market, once monopolized by state space agencies, has become an arena for private competition. Elon Musk’s SpaceX delivers not only cargo, but also people to the International Space Station; The Blue Origin of Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world (according to Bloomberg), will send Jeff Bezos himself and his brother Mark into space on the New Shepard on July 20.
Richard Branson is going to meet the demand of customers from all over the world for the delivery of small satellites into orbit as cheaply as possible. Previously, small customers were forced to coordinate their plans with the launches of large satellites or with deliveries to the ISS. Branson offered the market a much more convenient option.
Virgin Orbit undertook a test launch in January. And now, after the first and successful commercial launch, it became finally clear what it looks like. The Cosmic Girl, as the Boeing 747 is called, takes off from an airfield in the Mojave Desert, California with a LauncherOne rocket under its wing. This rocket, in fact, carries a payload – a maximum of 300 kg – in the form of satellites. This time, Virgin Orbit delivered vehicles from the US Department of Defense, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and the Polish startup SatRevolution into orbit.
If the American and Dutch customers pursue quite obvious goals, then SatRevolution is a lesser known participant in space launches. This Wroclaw-based company was founded in 2016 and for them the launch on LauncherOne is also the first commercial delivery in history. One of its customers was the Australian company Spiral Blue, a developer of computers for analyzing data directly in orbit, primarily agricultural data, which will be collected by Polish vehicles.
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