Richard Branson, Virgin Air Create Vox Space Company For Private Launches

There’s a new private space company in the game. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways as well as several companies and ventures, has launched a new company called VOX Space under Virgin Orbit.

The new company, VOX, will provide the “national security community of the USA and allied nations with responsive, dedicated, and affordable launch services for small satellites bound for Low Earth Orbit,” according to the company’s site. The new company will wholly be a subsidiary of Virgin Orbit.

Tech Crunch reported the new company on Wednesday and said that it had been formed because it was clear that the military and defense industry wouldn't ever really be a bulk of Virgin Orbit’s contracts. The hope is that the new company will help Branson’s brands compete in the market with other space companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and SpaceX.

Currently Branson has Virgin Galactic, his company that he plans to use to launch people to space, making space travel something available to the average person rather than just astronauts with government agencies. This is something SpaceX is planning to do some time in 2018. In addition to Virgin Airways and Virgin Galactic, Branson started Virgin Orbit. This branch of the company is meant to launch satellite payloads or other cargo to space for customers. This goal will be accomplished with the help of an airplane that has a LauncherOne rocket attached, the rocket carrying the payload will then launch from the plane called “Cosmic Girl” from an altitude of 35,000 feet.

That means the only type of launch that ended up not covered by one of Virgin's brands was military and government launches, until now. That is where the new company VOX comes in. The description of the service on the company’s site says, “VOX Space can provide study, analysis, integration, and launch services using Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne, while ensuring our customer’s critical information is protected.”

Further confirmation of the new company can be gathered from the fact that it is looking to hire all the necessary people for such launches. The career section of the site says positions as payload integration engineer, controller, senior systems engineer and more are all available at the Manhattan Beach, California, headquarters for the company.

A spokesperson for Virgin Orbit told Tech Crunch that the company would not be commenting on an unconfirmed or unannounced plans at this time. So for now, no more details about the company have been verified or revealed.