Sky and Space Global lands Branson deal

The ASX-listed satellite firm will join forces with Virgin Galactic on a series of landmark launches.

Sky & Space Global CEO Meir Moalem (left) and chief technology officer Meidad Pariente (right). Source: Supplied.

ASX-listed satellite firm Sky and Space Global has landed a deal with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to launch up to 200 nanosatellites in 2018.

The UK-based firm, led by former Israeli fighter pilot Meir Moalem, said it would launch the nanosatellites — which are about 80 per cent cheaper than traditional satellites — with Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne orbital launch vehicle in a bid to service equatorial countries with more cost-efficient voice calls, text messages and data services.

“LauncherOne is an aerial launcher, which means it is launched from a Boeing 747 that can take off from anywhere, and can launch to any orbit with a high flexibility in schedule and location,” Mr Moalem said.

“After having initial discussions with Virgin Galactic, both sides came to realise the benefits of launching Sky and Space Global nanosatellites with LauncherOne.

“Our business plan is based on wholesale services, selling capacity to telco providers, much like the agreement we signed with SatSpace Africa (SSA). Our customers will come from the equatorial belt — that is, South and Central America, Africa, Asia — and also from airliners and shipping companies operating within our coverage area.

“The area that will be covered by Sky and Space Global’s nanosatellite constellation is home to about 4 billion people.”

Sky and Space Global is listed on the Australian sharemarket, but its aerospace operations are based in Europe and Israel.

According to Mr Moalem, Sky and Space Global’s constellation will be lower cost and lower risk than other systems, and will be deployed by the end of the decade.

Barry A. Matsumori, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Advanced Concepts at Virgin Galactic, who has previously held roles at SpaceX and Qualcomm, told The Australian the small satellite market had been undeserved until now, with priority generally given to big satellites.

“We want to build a service that’s regular, almost common, so that when small satellites want to go to space they don’t have to wait,” Mr Matsumori said.

“Say they’re a cubesat, we’ll go up so often that in fact a delay is a month, not 6 months or 18 months. Sky and Space Global were exactly what we built the service to be able to take care of; they’re perfectly sized for what we are trying to do.”

He said despite an explosion in late 2014 which claimed the life of a 39-year old pilot, Virgin Galactic was still very much pushing ahead with its suborbital space tourism program.

“That business is still very much alive,” he said. “We rolled out the new Spaceship II design in February of this year with Sir Richard; what we haven’t done is announce the launch date, we don’t want to build up timetable pressures.”

Shares in Sky and Space Global were 0.2 cents lower at 2.1 cents at 1215 AEST.

With AAP