The first attempt by the United Kingdom to launch satellites from home suffered a setback on 9 January, 2023 as all the nine small satellites failed to reach orbit.
A Virgin Orbit modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet, named Cosmic Girl, carrying a LauncherOne rocket with nine small satellites under its left wing, took-off from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay, England, by 23:02 WAT.
As planned, Cosmic Girl cruised to an altitude of 35,000 feet (10,700 metres) and at about one hour, twenty minutes after take-off, released the rocket with the satellites in southwest Ireland over the Atlantic Ocean.
As a precautionary measure, the air traffic control zone over the area was closed for the launch.
The LauncherOne engine reportedly fired well and its first stage propelled the payload into space.
However, the second stage of the rocket that was supposed to deploy the satellites into an orbit of 500 kilometres over Australia failed.
Virgin Orbit said “an anomaly prevented us from reaching orbit.”
About 2,000 people gathered to watch the launch in Spaceport Cornwall and the event was televised live on British media.
UK is second to US in manufacturing satellites in the world but does not have launch capability.
As a result, she depends on other countries to launch her satellites.
The failure of the launch is therefore, a big blow to the space industry in that country.
Virgin Orbit and the British Space Agency say they are investigating the “anomaly.”
