The Register has a story linking to a Flight International piece describing a proposed new microsat launcher for payloads up to 200kg. The concept is something like a Pegasus stage, launched from the White Knight Two Virgin / Scaled Composites mothership. I can't help speculating about the cost of a nanosat launch via this method...

SSTL have already been on record about the ability to get a high res orbing asset built and launched for <$5M - which would be remarkable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7862827.stm

Doug

The key quote from the BBC article is that the launch cost target was $1 M dollars:
"What we are targeting is to see if we can do this for a million dollars"


For perspective, the Cosmos 1 satellite had a mass of 100 kg.

Just for comparison, I see the Falcon 1e is a bit over 1,000 kg to LEO for a bit under $10M.

http://spacex.com/falcon1.php

--Greg

200 kg at $1 M is $5,000/kg which is CHEAP for a small-sat launcher. Would be nice to see them rattle the space access cage a bit by demonstrating a rapid turn-around or readiness potential for their proposed system. The USAF has been chasing rapid deployment for years and is still not getting any joy from the current launch service providers.