Milestones

1980

• Orbital founders Messrs. David Thompson, Bruce Ferguson and Scott Webster meet at Harvard Business School and work together on a NASA-sponsored study of commercial space applications

1981

• The business school study is submitted to NASA and subsequently wins the Space Foundation Prize for Space Business Research

1982

• Orbital is incorporated in Delaware
• The company secures startup funding ("seed capital") from a group of businessmen led by Mr. Fred Alcorn of Houston, Texas

1983

• Orbital signs an agreement with NASA for the company's first space product, the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS) vehicle, after reaching a production agreement with Martin Marietta Corporation
• The company obtains venture capital from Rothschild Inc. in New York, Brentwood Associates in Los Angeles and Northwest Bank in Minneapolis; it opens its first office in Vienna, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. with six employees

1984-85

• The company raises $50 million from limited partnership investors to finance development of the TOS vehicle
• TOS design, development and marketing efforts move into high gear

1986

• NASA signs a $35 million contract for the first TOS vehicle and exercises an option for another
• Orbital relocates to Fairfax, Virginia, with a 50-person workforce

1987

• Dr. Antonio Elias, Orbital's Chief Engineer, conceives of a revolutionary, air-launched rocket — later named Pegasus — designed to place small satellites into low-Earth orbit
• Orbital begins to investigate a system that uses low-Earth orbit satellites to collect data from remote locations; this project evolves into the ORBCOMM communications network

1988

• Orbital and Hercules, Inc. agree to jointly develop and produce Pegasus
• The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) signs the first Pegasus contract for six launches
• Orbital broadens its rocket business and manufacturing capabilities by acquiring Space Data Corporation in Arizona, one of the world's leading suppliers of suborbital rockets
• The company's workforce exceeds 500 people by year-end

1989

• Orbital breaks ground on a new facility in Chandler, Arizona, to house the company's expanding rocket business
• The company wins major space and suborbital launch service contracts, including one from DARPA to supply a new ground-launched rocket (later named Taurus) based on Pegasus technologies

1990 - 1999 | 2000 - 2009 | 2010 - Present