The US-based Virgin Orbit suffered an anomaly during its first UK launch. This Monday (9), the company was going to take nine satellites for civil and military use into Earth orbit, but announced the failure about two hours after the start of the mission.
For the Mission, named “Start Me Up” in reference to the band’s song of the same name The Rolling Stones, the company used the Cosmic Girl aircraft, a modified Boeing 747. When it reached an altitude of 10 km, the vehicle released a rocket with satellites inside, which activated its engines and reached space. The separation of the rocket’s stages, which followed, appeared to have gone well.
About two hours after the plane left the ground, the company announced the failure in a Twitter post. “However, at some point during second-stage engine activation and with the rocket traveling at over 17,000 km/h, the system had an anomaly and ended the mission prematurely,” the company said in a statement. According to Virgin Orbit, the crew on board and the plane returned safely to the ground.
Some of the mission’s satellites were aimed at monitoring and defending the UK, while others focused on navigation technologies. In the statement, Virgin Orbit highlighted that, although the mission did not reach the final orbit, it represents an important step for the company.
“The efforts behind the flight brought about new partnerships and an integrated collaboration of different partners,” they wrote. Virgin Orbit also said it would investigate the nature of the fault and take corrective action, and that it planned to return to space once a full investigation into the fault had been completed.
The full launch stream is available below:
Source: Virgin Orbit
