GO was founded on April 25, 2011 as a subsidiary company of SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc.[2][3] In 2013, GO competed in the NewSpace Business Plan Competition (BPC), winning first place and the $100,000 prize.

[4][5] The BPC was administered by the Space Frontier Foundation and held at Stanford University.

Following the Business Plan Competition, GO was selected in September 2013 for NASA's Enabling eXploration and Technology (NEXT) contract, with an award of $2.1 million.

[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Generation Orbit is developing the GOLauncher family, a series of high-speed flight and space launch systems designed to lower costs, improve responsiveness, and increase overall mission flexibility.

[13] The X-60A GOLauncher 1 (GO1) is an air-launched single stage suborbital rocket vehicle.