Virgin Galactic, a commercial spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson, has unveiled an old Virgin Atlantic jumbo jetliner, Boeing 747- 400, which will be used as a launch pad for hurling satellites into space.

The aircraft, acquired from the company’s airline wing, will act as a platform for Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne small satellite launch service.

The launch system is expected to go operational by 2018.

During the launch, the LauncherOne rocket will fly with the carrier aircraft 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, under the left wing, the position used by other 747s to ferry a fifth engine.

It will take the satellite rocket to a high altitude before blasting it into space.

The company doubled the payload performance of LauncherOne, which can ferry more than 400kg of payload to other orbits and 200kg into the standard sun-synchronous orbit, at a cost of nearly $10m.

Initial inspections and tests have been carried out for the 747. MRO service provider VT San Antonio Aerospace is expected to conduct a regularly scheduled maintenance check before going ahead with wing modification of the aircraft.

"Air launch enables us to provide rapid, responsive service to our satellite customers on a schedule set by their business and operational needs."

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said: "Air launch enables us to provide rapid, responsive service to our satellite customers on a schedule set by their business and operational needs, rather than the constraints of national launch ranges.

"Selecting the 747 airframe provides a dedicated platform that gives us the capacity to substantially increase our payload to orbit without increasing our prices."

The 747 is said to have supported various special missions, such as the Space Shuttle Enterprise test flight programme, Nasa’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft programme, Pratt and Whitney flying testbed and flight test of the X-45 ‘Phantom Ray.’

According to LauncherOne team members, the large and robust rocket carrying capacity, operational flexibility, long range and ability to operate in different weather conditions made the 747 an ideal choice for orbital launch platform missions.

For SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft will work as a mothership for suborbital spaceflight services out of Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic president Steve Isakowitz said: "2015 has been a year of incredible progress.

"Our LauncherOne team moved into a 150,000ft² facility for design and manufacturing, grew to more than 150 dedicated staff, completed multiple long-duration hot fires of our liquid rocket engines, doubled the L1 payload capacity, and welcomed two game-changing customers from both new space and government, OneWeb and Nasa."