ORB

Orbital Sciences Corporation

A maker of small and medium rockets and satellites, Orbital Sciences built launch vehicles like the Pegasus and the Antares, which carried cargo to the International Space Station, plus communications and science spacecraft for NASA and the military. Founded in 1982 by three friends, it sketched the Pegasus idea on a napkin and named the rocket through an employee contest — it became the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit. The company merged with ATK in 2015 to form Orbital ATK, later folded into Northrop Grumman.