UK: Privately-owned Virgin Orbit’s 1st space launch from Britain’s soil failed

In UK, the privately-owned Virgin Orbit’s first space launch from Britain’s soil has failed when a reported anomaly prevented the rocket from reaching orbit on wee hours today. It was the first attempt to launch a satellite from western Europe.

The repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named ‘Cosmic Girl’ took off from Cornwall in southwestern England and released the rocket around an hour into flight over the Atlantic Ocean, toward the south of Ireland. However, Virgin Orbit said it appeared to have an anomaly in a satellite launch and it had prevented the rocket from reaching orbit.

The rocket was carried-out nine small satellites. A crowd of around 2,000 people attended the takeoff in Cornwall. Previously in 2022 and 2021, Virgin Orbit launched four similar missions from California after some failed attempts.