LOS ANGELES—The privately funded space exploration group Virgin Galactic has signed a 150,000-square-foot lease at an industrial facility in Long Beach. The building will house and manufacture the company's LauncherOne, a small satellite launch vehicle.

The LauncherOne was designed to launch government and commercial satellites under 500 pounds into space from the WhiteKnightTwo carrier. The new location in Long Beach will allow easy transportation of rockets and satellites through the carrier. According to Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, the success of the LauncherOne has enabled the company to move production, research and storage into a dedicated facility. As part of the move, the company is also looking to augment its employee base, and will host a job fair on March 7.

Long Beach is slowly becoming a hub for this type of aerospace tenant, thanks to the pool of qualified talent in the area and close proximity to the Air Force base, according to David Kudrave, first VP in CBRE's aerospace and defense practice group and a market expert unrelated to the Virgin Galactic lease transaction. “This is a true industrial building in an industrial park, and it is significant in that it will continue to solidify this region as a base operation for space programs, whether it is rockets, satellites or the capsules themselves,” Kudrave tells GlobeSt.com. “That is because of the proximity to the Air Force base along with the intellectual power that you have in the South Bay and the other industry types that can support these programs.” Virgin Galactic declined to comment about the lease transaction.

Long Beach hasn't always been the aerospace hub, however, Kudrave notes that El Segundo has typically been the base for this type of tenant. “The industrial supply in El Segundo is slowly diminishing due to creative office conversion. But, Long Beach is not a bad location. This is a brand new building and it is fairly close to aerospace engineers and talent,” he says, adding that while 150,000 square feet is a good size, it pales in comparison to the 1 million square feet occupied across the street by Mercedes Benz.

The success of the LauncherOne has attracted interest from other, smaller, satellite manufacturers, including a project with OneWeb. These projects will also be handled out of the new facility.