Brenda Marie Rivers
Virgin Orbit’s VOX Space business has received authorization to launch the company’s LauncherOne rocket from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam for orbital space missions.
VOX said Thursday the Commercial Space Operations Support Agreement will support the STP-27VP mission aimed at sending cube satellites to orbit along with various government experiments as part of the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program.
Final preparations for the launch demonstration are underway following assessments of key vehicle assemblies and flight test operations.
Mandy Vaughn, president of VOX, signed the agreement with Gen. Gentry Boswell, commander of the Air Force's 36th Wing, for LauncherOne's first launch at Andersen AFB in early April.
VOX announced the same month that it secured a $35M award to launch small satellites for the U.S. Space Force under the STP initiative.
Virgin Orbit and VOX first announced plans to leverage Guam facilities for LauncherOne operations in 2019, according to the latter.
