European Responsive Space Capabilities Focus of New Agreement
A Letter of Intent has been signed by Virgin Orbit and the Luxembourg Minister of Defense to begin the process towards developing responsive space capabilities inclusive of mobile launch infrastructure that would be based in Luxembourg, but available for NATO partners, and other Allies across the European continent.
“As we approach the first historic launch in the United Kingdom and recent announcements to bring air-launch capability to other parts of the world, this initiative in Luxembourg resonates as another significant milestone in our journey to enable resilient space access by providing a game-changing global launch infrastructure.”
Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart.
As part of the agreement, Virgin Orbit, in close coordination with the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence, will assess how responsive space capabilities could be based in Luxembourg and optimized for use by NATO and other European allies.
Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Officer Dan Hart and Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, François Bausch, signed the Letter of Intent for the collaboration at a ceremony in Luxembourg.
“We look forward to working with the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence to explore how Virgin Orbit’s flexible and mobile LauncherOne system can provide end-to-end responsive space missions to strengthen the resiliency of NATO and other Allies,” Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit CEO said. “As we approach the first historic launch in the United Kingdom and recent announcements to bring air-launch capability to other parts of the world, this initiative in Luxembourg resonates as another significant milestone in our journey to enable resilient space access by providing a game-changing global launch infrastructure.”
Responsive Space Capabilities Includes Launchers, Infrastructure
In this initiative, Virgin Orbit will develop a plan for the development, delivery, mobilization, and sustainment of LauncherOne Ground Support Equipment and other responsive launch infrastructure that would be allocated for Allied use. Through this collaboration, Virgin Orbit and the Directorate of Defence will engage with partners interested in leveraging these responsive space capabilities and determine the necessary operating constructs and requirements for delivering responsive launch infrastructure to Luxembourg that would allow Allied nations to conduct horizontal launches from a network of active and on-call spaceports in Europe.
"Luxembourg Defense is constantly searching for new ways to strengthen its role as a reference partner in the space domain," said Minister of Defense François Bausch. "As highlighted in our Space Strategy, we aim at contributing to the joint effort in defense by developing high-end space capabilities and ensuring access to space through resilient satellite launch capabilities. Our future cooperation with Virgin Orbit is an excellent example of this ambition and we are looking forward to further investigating how we can contribute to the development of the responsive space capability with Allies and partners."
(Source: Virgin Orbit news release. Images courtesy of the Government of Luxembourg and from file)