Virgin Orbit announced the signing of a launch services agreement with Japanese earth observation constellation operator Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (“iQPS”). The satellite is expected to join Virgin Orbit's manifest for early 2023. Selected for LauncherOne's proven ability to provide direct access to diverse orbits, Virgin Orbit expects to launch the QPS-SAR-5 satellite into a tailored mid-inclination orbit to allow iQPS to expand the coverage of its constellation and revisit rate.

By directly injecting the QPS-SAR-5 into the desired orbit on iQPS's schedule, LauncherOne's flexibility should allow for iQPS to rapidly commission the QPS-SAR-5 and begin collecting information from areas of key interest to its customers. The iQPS QPS-SAR-5 to be launched by Virgin Orbit is expected to play a critical role in enabling near real-time earth observation by iQPS's Synthetic Aperture Radar (“SAR”) constellation. iQPS enables the development of small, high-performance SAR satellites by employing a unique deployable antenna that is large, yet easy to stow and weighs only 10 kg.

It is also capable of penetrating clouds and collecting high-resolution images even in adverse weather conditions, enabling frequent and important earth observation missions. iQPS is planning to establish a constellation of 36 satellites which enable the observation of particular locations almost everywhere in the world in around 10 minutes or every 10 minutes to a fixed area for observation. Additionally, iQPS has succeeded in acquiring 70 cm resolution images with QPS-SAR-2, and subsequent satellites including QPS-SAR-5 are expected to achieve even higher resolution.