Planetary Resources, a startup company that aims to scout out near-Earth asteroids containing precious minerals and mine them in space, on Wednesday announced it had reached a deal with Virgin Galactic, billionaire UK entrerpeneur Richard Branson‘s spacefaring company, in which Virgin Galactic will launch Planetary Resource’s first line of telescopes into orbit using a new vehicle called LauncherOne.
Neither company released a specific date for the first telescope cargo flights, but Planetary Resouces said it would launch a “constellation” of various telescopes in “the next few years.” Virgin Galactic released the following video showing off its plans for the LauncherOne:
