Jan 8 (Portal) – A mobile airborne missile system to be used in Britain’s first domestic satellite launch could sow the seeds of a globally distributed rapid response capability to keep extra eyes on space in wartime, executives and analysts said.
Virgin Orbit (VORB.O), part-owned by billionaire Richard Branson, plans to launch nine satellites from a LauncherOne rocket strapped under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 to be flown from a new spaceport in Cornwall on Monday to become.
Barring delays, it will be the first time a satellite has left Western European soil.
Right now the focus is on commercial payloads from companies like Space Forge that are developing in-orbit manufacturing.
But the launch is also seen by many as a blueprint for faster, limited-capacity satellite launches for tactical military purposes, which planners refer to as a “responsive launch.”
“Ukraine has woken up the world in many ways,” Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart said at a news conference in south-west England on Sunday.
“There’s clearly hope for a pan-European and a US collaboration… and that we’ll be responsive so that if something happens in the world, we can get assets there immediately,” he said before the start of the briefing, monitored online.
Virgin Orbit said Britain’s Royal Air Force conducted drills last year to demonstrate the value of responsive launch.
Britain had a brief foray into space launch activity in the late 1960s and early 1970s when its Black Arrow rocket was canceled after just one successful mission.
The rocket’s four launches took place in Australia at a time when commercial satellites were scarce.
Now, constellations of miniaturized satellites are heading for an explosion of commercial activity in low-Earth orbit.
“FLEXIBLE AND AGILE”
Putting small satellites into low orbit in the short term would do little more than fill temporary gaps in coverage from large spy satellites, but experts say the technology has some civilian and military potential and could spread the cost.
“It gives you greater resilience or redundancy or duality of systems, whether it’s for position, navigation and timekeeping, or quicker access… like we saw in Ukraine,” Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency, told Sunday’s briefing.
“It’s a natural transition that helps us develop security capacity, but also keeps costs down for the government while also providing commercial opportunities.”
Elon Musk’s SpaceX activated its Starlink constellation over Ukraine following the Russian invasion last February. Its communications links were used by civilians and the Ukrainian military.
Luxembourg said in October it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Virgin Orbit to develop a “rapid and flexible response to various threats” to NATO and other allies.
His Ministry of Defense calls for “new, more flexible and more agile satellite launch procedures and techniques from Europe”.
The UK’s own 2022-25 Space Roadmap calls for dual-use capabilities in Earth Observation and Space Awareness.
Virgin Orbit is also in talks with Japan and Australia.
However, the question remains how quickly the mobile launch concept could find its way into actual budgets dwarfed by US space spending.
“Everyone is hyping military space as the next big thing,” said UK-based defense analyst Francis Tusa. “But defense departments have eyes bigger than their stomachs.”
The system’s liquid fuel and final rocket assembly also require some local infrastructure, and Europe’s crowded airspace has posed significant regulatory obstacles.
“Right now it’s a bit bigger on the commercial side but we’re seeing the defense and national security side growing so I think in that steady state it’s probably going to be 50/50,” Hart told Portal.
reporting by Tim Hepher; Additional coverage by Joey Roulette; Adaptation by David Holmes
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