The Virgin Orbit company announced this Tuesday that the UK’s first space launch failed after the rocket exhibited an “anomaly” that prevented the nine satellites on board from being launched into orbit.
“It seems we have an anomaly that prevented us from orbiting. We are evaluating the information”Virgin Orbit announced on social network Twitter.
We seem to have an anomaly that prevents us from getting into orbit. We are evaluating the information.
– Virgin Orbit (@VirginOrbit) January 9, 2023
Later, the company announced that the modified Boeing 747 aircraft dubbed “Cosmic Girl” had “returned safely” to Newquay Airport in Cornwall, in the south-west of the UK, with the crew on board.
Cosmic Girl, with a 21-meter rocket on board, lifted off at 10:02 PM Monday from Spaceport Cornwall, a consortium that includes Virgin Orbit and the UK Space Agency.
The plane flew 10,600 meters above the Atlantic Ocean and then launched the rocket, called LauncherOne, at around 11:15 p.m., containing nine satellites that would be put into orbit.
The satellites had a variety of purposes, “from Earth observation, to monitoring illegal fishing, to building satellites and products to manufacture them in space,” Spaceport Cornwall director Melissa Thorpe explained to the BBC before the launch. television.
Matt Archer, Director of Commercial Flight at the UK Space Agency, explained that the first leg of the launch was “successful” and went “as expected”, but that the second had “some kind of anomaly”.
“We don’t know what it is and again, there will be an investigation in the next few days to find out, but it won’t effectively reach the height needed to deploy the satellites”added Archer to the ITV News channel.
The official added that although the mission was unsuccessful, “it showed” that it is possible for the UK to reach space, so “everything is set again for another launch in the future”.
Virgin Orbit attempted to reach a milestone by launching the first rocket from Europe. Currently, only eight countries have the capacity to launch devices into orbit from their own territory.
“Joining this very exclusive club of launch countries is so important because it gives us our own access to space, this sovereign access to space that we’ve never had before in the UK”underlined the director of Spaceport Cornwall.
Melissa Thorpe recalled that since the invasion of Ukraine, Europe has lost access to the Russian space shuttle Soyuz.
The launch of Virgin Orbit caused excitement in the UK, with thousands flocking to Cornwall to witness the launch.
Hundreds of people watched the start of the mission, dubbed “Start Me Up” in reference to the Rolling Stones hit.
In addition to the Spaceport in Cornwall, the United Kingdom wants to open a space base in Sutherland, in the north of Scotland, and another in the Shetland archipelago, located between the Faroe Islands and Norway.
The Scottish government said in early January that these two bases are expected to start up “in the coming months”.
Source: DN
