Following the announcement of its merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) in the form of NextGen Acquisition Corp, Virgin Orbit now says it wants its own in-orbit satellite system.

Backed by Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit wants to transition from launching small satellites to building its own satellite constellation for Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Earth observation.

The merger with NextGen will provide Virgin with some $483 million in fresh capital (less the costs of the merger’s legal and other related fees).

However, in a post-announcement call with analysts with Greg Summe, co-founder of NextGen and Virgin Orbit’s CEO Dan Hart, the pair stressed Virgin’s low- cost launch facility and their development of LauncherTwo which would sit on top of the Boeing 747’s wing and “triple the performance”.

They talked about establishing a space solutions business which would include providing a constellation of satellites for IoT and Earth observation and which would serve the aviation, maritime and other sectors.

Virgin Orbit stated its first four satellites would launch in “early 2023”.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Virgin Galactic in stock split
2. Thuraya-3 suffers major problem
3. AST SpaceMobile hit by Class Action
4. Optimism under threat at SES
5. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
6. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
7. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
8. IRIS2 already in trouble?
9. Intelsat contemplates next steps

Categories: Blogs, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: Boeing, Richard Branson, virgin, Virgin Orbit