Hours after taking off, the United Kingdom's attempt to launch the first satellite into orbit from Western Europe ended up in a failure. The Richard Branson-founded company, Virgin Orbit, was flying the satellites on a repurposed Boeing 747 in a bid to attempt its first international launch using a modified jumbo jet dubbed Cosmic Girl.
The mission, dubbed Start Me Up, began well and the aircraft took off from Spaceport Cornwall before dropping the Virgin Orbit's 70-foot-long LauncherOne rocket that was carrying the satellites. There was a clean separation of the rocket from the spacecraft and the first-stage rocket ignited as planned.
The full duration burn of stage one was followed by the ignition of stage two engines, taking the rocket and the payload into space. But then, the company said, "We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information."
The tweet was later deleted, with a clarification, "As we find out more, we're removing our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We'll share more info when we can."
The plane, piloted by a Royal Air Force pilot, returned to Cornwall after releasing the rocket.
UK officials had high hopes for the mission. Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the U.K. Space Agency, said Monday it marked a "new era" for his country's space industry. There was strong market demand for small satellite launches, Annett said, and the UK has ambitions to be "the hub of European launches."
The failure deals a further blow to European space ambitions after an Italian-built Vega-C rocket mission failed after lift-off from French Guiana in late December. The rockets have since been grounded.
It was not immediately clear how the failure, which will have to be investigated, would affect the timing or location of future missions. Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Dan Hart told reporters on Sunday that the company hoped to return to Newquay before the end of 2023.
"Over the coming days there will be an investigation by the government and various bodies, including Virgin Orbit," Matt Archer, Commercial Space Director at the UK Space Agency said.
A mission failure would be the second in Virgin Orbit's history since its first launch in 2020. The company has had four successful missions. A graphic display on an official video feed showed the mission at second-engine cut-off, three steps short of payload deployment about two hours after take-off.
Britain says it is the leading non-U.S. manufacturer of satellites, with 47,000 people employed in its space industry, and has called for the development of multiple potential micro launch sites including two vertical launchpads in Scotland.
