Global communications company Sky and Space Global has entered into a binding launch services agreement to buy four missions on Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne system, an orbital launch vehicle dedicated to the small satellite market.

The deal, value of which has not been disclosed, will allow Sky and Space Global to deploy its initial constellation of satellite into space.

Scheduled to be launched from low latitudes, the flights are expected to start in 2018.

Virgin Galactic said that the low latitudes flights will enable Sky and Space Global to maximise the amount of payload delivered to a low inclination orbit.

Designed to carry several satellites, each of the four launches of Sky and Space Global aims to help Sky and Space Global to establish its innovative communication system infrastructure and service.

“Having a 747 as our flying launch site means that LauncherOne can tailor each mission to suit each customer."

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said: “Having a 747 as our flying launch site means that LauncherOne can tailor each mission to suit each customer.

“We’ve seen an enormous level of commercial and governmental interest in launches that can reach equatorial orbits without having to pay the large performance penalty associated with transfer orbits.”

The company previously secured various other LauncherOne contracts, including flights for OneWeb and Nasa, which are designed to be launched to higher inclination orbits.

Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne programme is currently in an advanced phase of hardware testing that will be performed for every subsystem and major component of the vehicle.

The company has established a 150,000ft² manufacturing shop in Long Beach, California, US, in preparation for LauncherOne’s first test flights.

Image: Sky and Space Global and Virgin Galactic representatives. Photo: courtesy of Virgin Galactic.