Unfortunately, Virgin Orbit's first attempt at the UK's debut rocket launch
What is known
January 10 at 00:02 (EET) Cosmic Girl took off from Cornwall. This is a modification of the Boeing 747, designed specifically for launching rockets. At an altitude of over 10 km, the LauncherOne rocket successfully separated from the aircraft. By that time, Cosmic Girl was already flying over the southwest coast of Ireland.
Incredible work has gone into the UK’s first ever launch of an orbital satellite tonight.
Good luck to the entire team ????️ https://t.co/Gq4P6mVc1d
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) January 9, 2023
210 seconds after starting the mainengines, the first stage successfully separated from the rocket. Virgin Orbit posted a tweet about the successful orbital launch. However, the post has been removed.
</ img>
As it turned out, after the start of the second stage engine, an "unknown anomaly" occurred, which caused the failure of the mission. Virgin Orbit launched an investigation into the incident.
We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information.
— Virgin Orbit (@VirginOrbit) January 9, 2023
LauncherOne's fall sent shares plungingcompanies. The price of securities decreased by 25%. Note that Virgin Orbit has been able to complete four successful launches in its history. But they were all carried out from California. The company previously said that in case of failure, a re-launch in Britain would take place before the end of January.
</ p>