Virgin Orbit Will Double its Launch Rate in 2022 Says CEO

According to Virgin Orbit’s CEO, Dan Hart, the company will be doubling its launch rate next year.

Speaking to CNBC, Hart said, “We can turn any airport into a spaceport.” He said the company is focused on “ramping up” and expanding operations globally after its launch success on Wednesday.

“We’re on a really good trajectory to have another flight this year, and then double that cadence and have six flights next year and then increase from there,” Hart said.

Virgin Orbit currently flies out of the Mojave Air and Space Port in California and has agreements in place to launch from the island of Guam and Cornwall in the United

It was on Wednesday that Sir Richard Branson’s private space venture Virgin Orbit launched its second successful satellite mission.

Virgin Orbit uses a modified Boeing 747 aircraft as the platform to launch its rockets.

Wednesday’s launch took off from the California desert and flew to space from above the Pacific Ocean. It was the company’s first commercial launch, as the prior two launches were demonstration missions.

Virgin Orbit is also working with “other countries” on agreements, Hart said, including Japan, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

“It was just magical,” Branson said on the company’s livestream. Branson hopes the missions are “going to become almost routine, and [Virgin Orbit] will be able to more and more and more satellites, more and more and more rockets into space.”

Virgin Orbit, wholly separate from Virgin Galactic, is privately held by Branson’s multinational conglomerate Virgin Group, with a minority stake from Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article