VirginGalactic's LauncherOne

[Zack Baughman]

VirginGalactic is moving beyond space tourism with the development of LauncherOne, a reusable launch vehicle to take satellites into orbit. Check it out here: http://www.virgingalactic.com/launcherone

[MEdwards]

So is this two Burt Rutan designs competing with each other? Maybe they ought to get together. Or perhaps they already have.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/12/rutan-allen-musk-team-up-for-orbit/

By the way, we're still waiting here in Southern New Mexico to see a return on our tax dollars going to Spaceport America to support Virgin Galactic. Last word was Galactic wanted the brand new runway extended 2000 feet, thank you. When I flew over it a couple weeks ago, they hadn't started doing that.

[rwanttaja]

VirginGalactic is moving beyond space tourism with the development of LauncherOne, a reusable launch vehicle to take satellites into orbit. Check it out here: http://www.virgingalactic.com/launcherone
That's just the "First stage" of SpaceshipTwo, with an unmanned booster, right? Looks like it's got about half the capacity as Orbital's Pegasus XL/L-1011 combination. Success will depend on the price. However, Orbital has really capitalized on sending multiple small payloads into orbit with a single launch vehicle, so the price difference for 500 pounds might be a wash.

But then I'm spoiled, I worked on a payload that launched on Pegasus....

Ron Wanttaja

[Eric Page]

I was lucky enough to see the L-1011/Pegasus mate-up in person a number of times at Vandenberg AFB ten or twelve years ago. Very impressive operation. Still wear my Orbital Sciences hat from time to time!