Virgin Galactic will build a system to launch satellites at Long Beach Airport

Virgin Galactic, one of the private companies working on space flights, made a deal with Long Beach Airport . The company plans to launch production of its LauncherOne satellite launch system at the airport. 16,000 sq.m. production space will be located on the site previously owned by Boing.

The LauncherOne system will be a two-step system, and instead of launching a rocket from the launch pad, the satellites (and eventually space tourists) will be put into orbit by a rocket starting from the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft . According to the creators, the plane rises from the runway, reaches a height of 15 km, after which a rocket starts from it, reaching an orbit of 100 km. System capacity will be about 250 kg.

The system already has the first customer. The OneWeb company plans to organize ubiquitous and inexpensive satellite Internet, and to launch for this purpose 648 satellites into the Earth's orbit. The head of the Virgin, billionaire Richard Branson announced the upcoming deal last month.
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Branson says that his system will be more convenient for launching satellites into a given orbit, since it is not tied to a specific launch site. In addition, it should allow satellites not to be put into orbit a couple of times a month, like their competitor SpaceX, but every three to four hours.