Private Space Flight photo
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Four years ago, Virgin Galactic, the private spaceflight company founded by flamboyant entrepreneur and adventurer Richard Branson, announced a new rocket it called “LauncherOne.” Virgin Galactic said that the LauncherOne was designed to put satellites into orbit via an unconventional means: blasting off not from the ground, but from the air, carried up by the company’s own WhiteKnightTwo craft. And though Virgin Galactic’s timetable for launching the first LauncherOne rocket has slipped from 2016 to 2017, it seems work on the project is proceeding smoothly, based on a photo of the rocket factory shared on Virgin Galactic’s social media accounts today.