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The historic launch of British satellite may whet military appetites

According to executives and analysts, a mobile air-launched rocket system to be used in Britain’s first domestic satellite launch could sow the seeds for a globally dispersed rapid-response capability to put extra eyes in space during times of war.

 

Virgin Orbit (VORB.O), a company owned in part by billionaire Richard Branson, plans to launch nine satellites from a LauncherOne rocket attached under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 on Monday from a new spaceport in Cornwall.

 

If there are no delays, it will be the first time a satellite has left Western European soil.

 

For the time being, the emphasis is on commercial payloads from companies like Space Forge, which is developing in-orbit manufacturing.

 

Many see the launch as a model for faster launches of limited satellite capacity for tactical military purposes, dubbed ‘Responsive Launch’ by planners.

 

‘Ukraine woke up the world in a variety of ways,’ Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said at a press conference in southwest England on Sunday.

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