Virgin Orbit


Virgin Orbit is a company within the Virgin Group which plans to provide launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 to develop the air-launched LauncherOne rocket, launched from Cosmic Girl, which had previously been a project of Virgin Galactic. Based in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit has more than 300 employees led by president Dan Hart, a former vice president of government satellite systems at Boeing.
Virgin Orbit focuses on small satellite launch, which was one of three capabilities being focused on by Virgin Galactic. These capabilities are: human spaceflight operations, small satellite launch, and advanced aerospace design, manufacturing, and test.

Vehicles

LauncherOne

Cosmic Girl

VOX Space

VOX Space is a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit that was created in the early 2020s. The company plans to supply launch services for the US military, sometimes referred to as the "national security launch market." The company intends to use the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne launch vehicle.
In April 2020, VOX Space was awarded a contract for three launches of 44 cubesats. The first launch is slated to occur no earlier than October 2021.

Other projects

Ventilators

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Virgin Orbit announced it was a partner in a new venture to build comparatively low-grade mechanical ventilators -- specifically "bridge ventilators" for partially recovered patients and patients not in intensive care—to address the critical global shortage of mechanical ventilators during the pandemic. To develop and produce them, Virgin Global—with the University of California Irvine and the University of Texas at Austin—formed the Bridge Ventilator Consortium. They had a prototype awaiting approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, in March, and hoped to begin production in April.

Personnel

In October 2019, Virgin Orbit announced that Matthew Stannard was joining as a pilot on a three-year contract. Stannard had previously served in the Royal Air Force as a test and evaluation pilot notably on Typhoon jets. Orbit is about to start testing of its Cosmic Girl launch platform.