Virgin Opens LauncherOne Facility in Long Beach, Calif

摘要

Virgin Galactic announced Feb. 12 that the company is opening a facility in Long Beach, California, devoted to development of its small-satellite launch vehicle. Virgin Galactic said that it is leasing a 13,900-square-meter building at the Long Beach Airport that it will use for the design and manufacturing of LauncherOne. The company did not disclose the terms of the lease. "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 Chief Executive George Whitesides said in a statement announcing the new facility. LauncherOne work has been based to date in Mojave, California. LauncherOne is an air-launch system for satellites weighing up to 225 kilograms. The system will use the same aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, as the company's SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, but replaces SpaceShipTwo with a two-stage launch vehicle using engines fueled by liquid oxygen and kerosene.