#24 – Veronica Foreman on small satellites and Virgin Orbit's air-launched rocket system

Veronica Foreman is a payload engineer at the small-satellite launch provider Virgin Orbit. Before starting her career at Virgin Orbit, Veronica earned several academic accolades including an Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award at Georgia Tech, and a Best Masters Thesis award at MIT. What I find especially impressive about her Masters work on small-satellite constellations is that Veronica considered both the design of constellations, as well as the economic and policy challenges to small-satellite mission success. As Virgin Orbit's mission is to be the premier dedicated launch service for small satellites, Veronica has seemingly found the perfect place for her expertise and passion. One of the key features of Virgin Orbit's launch design is its air-launching system that drops the rocket (LauncherOne) from the wing of a Boeing 747 (Cosmic Girl). As Veronica explains in this episode, this capability provides Virgin Orbit unique advantages in terms of providing a dedicated launch service for small satellites. In this episode of the Aerospace Engineering podcast, Veronica and I discuss:

• Virgin Orbit's vision
• the unique advantages and challenges of an air-launched rocket system
• some of Virgin Orbit's key engineering technologies
• and the growing importance of satellite constellations.

If you want to learn more about the topics discussed in this episode, then you can find show notes with links to more in-depth material on the aerospace engineering blog. If you want to support the show then please leave a review; share it on social media with your friends and family; or support us directly on Patreon. Thanks a lot for listening!

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