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Jan 10, 2023
“Start Me Up” This mission was to catapult the UK into the "exclusive" club of countries capable of sending spacecraft into space.
An "anomaly" prevented its launch. An attempt to launch the first rocket into space from British soil ended in failure overnight Monday to Tuesday. "It seems that we have an anomaly which prevents us from reaching orbit", tweeted Virgin Orbit, the company organizing this mission which was to catapult the United Kingdom into the "exclusive" club of countries capable of sending spacecraft.
Virgin Orbit on Twitter
The Virgin Orbit Boeing 747 carrying the 21-meter rocket took off Monday night at 12:02 a.m. (French time) from the Cornwall Spaceport, a consortium that includes Virgin Orbit and the British Space Agency, at the airport. from Newquay in the South West of England. The purpose of the mission was to launch nine satellites into space, which would have been a major first for the UK.
"A very exclusive club"
The rocket then separated from the plane and its engines ignited at a height of 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, around 01:15 am (French time). But the unspecified "anomaly" prevented it from reaching the intended orbit. Hundreds of people attended the start of the mission, dubbed "Start Me Up" in reference to the Rolling Stones hit, and provided by British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit company, which specializes in space launches for small satellites.
LauncherOne rocket first stage separation
If successful, the UK would have become the ninth country in the world to be able to put satellites into orbit. "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 have never had before in the UK," said before the launch on the BBC Melissa Thorpe, director of Spaceport Cornwall. She recalled that Europe had lost its access to the Russian Soyuz launcher since the invasion of Ukraine, compromising its access to space.
Launch a rocket from an airplane
The 21-meter rocket, dubbed LauncherOne, was attached under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 called "Cosmic Girl". Once the correct altitude was reached, the plane released the rocket which then started its own engine to propel itself. The aircraft then returned to Spaceport Cornwall. Launching a rocket from an airplane is easier than a vertical takeoff because theoretically a simple airstrip is enough, instead of an expensive space launch pad.
LauncherOne release and liftoff from Boeing 747 "Cosmic Girl"
In the past, Virgin Orbit, which offers a fast and adaptable space launch service for satellites between 300 and 500 kg, has already put other rockets launched from planes into orbit. Founded in 2017 by Richard Branson, the company succeeded for the first time in January 2021 in putting a rocket into space using this method, from a Boeing 747 that left the Californian desert.
Related articles:
Virgin Orbit - LauncherOne launches “Start Me Up”
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2023/01/virgin-orbit-launcherone-launches-start.html
Virgin Orbit receives U.K.'s first orbital launch licence; All launcherone system green for upcoming mission
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/12/virgin-orbit-receives-uks-first-orbital.html
Related link:
Virgin Orbit: https://virginorbit.com/
Images, Text, Credits: AFP/Virgin Orbit/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.
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