Virgin Orbit’s “Above the Clouds” launch on Jan. 13, 2022. Photo: Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit has moved a step closer to launching from South Korea. J-Space, the South Korean investment group, signed a deal with Virgin Orbit which will see the two companies assess candidate spaceport launch sites in South Korea, with the goal of providing satellite launch services from the country using Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne System. The two companies announced the deal Aug. 9.

The partnership will focus its initial efforts on linking with local South Korean high-tech industries and formulating end-to-end mission solutions that will benefit the nation and broader region. The partners aim to develop a roadmap that will result in launch site identification and operations, delineate specific investor and business objectives, and identify key partners in the region. The roadmap will seek to lay out the steps required to enable the first flights of LauncherOne to occur from South Korea in as little as 12 to 18 months.

“The Korean space industry has made huge strides in the past few years both in the commercial and government sectors, with the South Korean government increasing its space budget by over twenty percent in the past year alone. We are excited by the growth and partnership opportunities in the region that could include industrial base participation in South Korea and look forward to working with the visionary team at J-Space to expedite a flexible launch solution from the Korean peninsula in the near-future,” Dan Hart, CEO of Virgin Orbit, said in a statement.