At an industry partners event today in San Antonio, Texas, this week Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic business revealed it will turn to one of the entrepreneur’s existing businesses to support the its space business. The company is to source an aptly but coincidentally named Boeing 747-400, Cosmic Girl, from Virgin Atlantic Airways to act as an aerial platform for its LauncherOne satellite missions flying to an altitude of up to 40,000ft and launching it into orbit

Due to high levels of demand for both SpaceShipTwo human spaceflights and LauncherOne small satellite missions, Virgin Galactic has decided to have a specifically dedicated carrier aircraft for each program.

“The Boeing 747 has a very special place in my heart: we began service on my first airline, Virgin Atlantic, with just one leased 747. I never imagined that today one of our 747s would get a second chance and help open access to space.”

Sir Richard Branson
Founder, Virgin Galactic

An interdisciplinary team from Virgin Galactic has spent several months researching the most appropriate aircraft type with the performance characteristics to hit the payload and orbit sweet-spots in demand for rapid, flexible, dedicated and cost effective small satellite launches and then subsequently locating a suitable vehicle for procurement and modification.

Fortunately, after selecting their preferred aircraft type they didn’t have to look far and with Virgin Atlantic retiring many of its 747-400s from commercial passenger service, Cosmic Girl, was selected as Virgin Galactic’s second mother-ship.

The aircraft entered service with the airline in 2001 and from flying millions of passengers across the Atlantic over its 15 years of commercial service, it will in the future facilitate a new generation of small satellites which will help us in Virgin Galactic’s mission to open space for the benefit of life on Earth.

“Air launch enables us to provide rapid, responsive service to our satellite customers on a schedule set by their business and operational needs, rather than the constraints of national launch ranges,” said George Whitesides, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Galactic. “Selecting the 747 airframe provides a dedicated platform that gives us the capacity to substantially increase our payload to orbit without increasing our prices.”

The 747 has an established track record of supporting a variety of special missions, including the Space Shuttle Enterprise test flight program, NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft program, the Pratt and Whitney flying testbed, and flight test of the X-45 ‘Phantom Ray.’ The LauncherOne team describe the 747 as “ideal for the orbital launch platform mission” thanks to it large and robust rocket carrying capacity, operational flexibility, long range, ability to operate in many kinds of weather, as well as years of existing 747-400 experience, maintenance, and spare parts supply chains within the Virgin organisation.

“The Boeing 747 has a very special place in my heart: we began service on my first airline, Virgin Atlantic, with just one leased 747. I never imagined that today one of our 747s would get a second chance and help open access to space. I’m absolutely thrilled that Cosmic Girl can stay in the Virgin family — and truly live up to her name!” said Sir Richard Branson, Founder of both Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Galactic.

The LauncherOne rocket will be mounted to the carrier aircraft under the left wing, adjacent to the position that has been used by other 747s to ferry a fifth engine. Initial inspections and tests of Cosmic Girl have already been completed and, prior to the start of the wing modification, a regularly scheduled maintenance check will be conducted by maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider VT San Antonio Aerospace.