Richard Branson’s consumer space flight company said Monday it’ll be helping U.K. communications firm Sky and Space Global get a constellation of small satellites into orbit starting in 2018.
The job will done using Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne, a rocket now being built specifically for launching satellites. The rocket is dropped from the wing of a modded 747 before zooming out through the atmosphere. Virgin will start testing the rocket next year.
LauncherOne will also be used to launch satellites for the low-cost satellite broadband provider OneWeb.