Virgin Galactic's Launch Spot Will Be A Former Boeing Facility

For the past few months, SpaceX and its launches, and its landings, have been the focus of many rocket science and space travel news, but it is hardly the only game in town. It's rival Virgin Galactic will soon be entering the news again once it starts the construction of what would be its future launching pad. The company has just inked a deal that would let it build a 150,000 sq. ft. facility on a former Boeing space at Long Beach Airport, where it plans to have LuancherOne launches every two to three hours.

That may sound like crazy talk until you come to understand that Virgin Galactic's "launches" won't exactly be like your traditional rocket launch used by the likes of SpaceX and everyone else. Instead, the two-stage orbital launcher will be released mid-flight by WhiteKnightTwo, Virgin Galactic's own twin aircraft. WhiteKnightTwo, for its part, takes off like a regular airplane.

This rather unorthodox way to launch a rocket has several benefits, according to Virgin Galactic. It is claimed to cut down the costs of launches by as much as a quarter of regular expenses. For another, it will be easier to place LauncherOne's satellite payloads into orbit since it will already be in motion instead of launching from a fixed position. And lastly, because WhiteKnightTwo behaves pretty much like an airplane, one can have as many as one launch every two or three hours instead of every two months like what SpaceX does. At least, in theory.

The first who will be testing that theory is OneWeb, Virgin Galactic's new found partner. OneWeb wants to put 648 satellites into orbit in order to create a grid to be used for spreading the Internet far and wide. This also puts it in direct rivalry with Elon Musk and SpaceX, who also plans such a satellite-based Internet network. One advantage OneWeb has, however, is that OneWeb's Greg Wyler has already purchased the needed spectrum to accomplish this while Elon Musk has not.

VIA: The Verge