An attempt to launch the first rocket into orbit from British soil failed on Tuesday, with scientists reporting an “anomaly” as it neared its destination. The Virgin Orbit Boeing 747 carrying the 70-foot (21-meter) rocket lifted off from the spaceport in Cornwall, southwest England, at 10:02 p.m. CET. The missile then separated from the aircraft and ignited as planned at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean south of Ireland around 2315 GMT.
But in a series of tweets as the rocket was about to enter orbit and launch its nine satellites, Virgin Orbit said: “It appears we have some anomaly preventing us from getting into orbit. We are evaluating the information. As we learn more, we are removing our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We will share more information when possible.”
The aircraft returned as scheduled to the humbled Cornwall Spaceport, a consortium that includes Virgin Orbit and the UK Space Agency, at Cornwall Airport Newquay. The launch was the first from British soil. UK-made satellites previously had to be sent into orbit via foreign spaceports. If the mission is successful, the UK would be one of only nine countries to launch a craft into Earth orbit.
Cornwall Spaceport boss Melissa Thorpe told “Joining this really exclusive club of launch countries is so important because it gives us our own access to space… that we’ve never had here in the UK”.
The satellites were intended to have a variety of civilian and defense functions, from monitoring the sea to help countries detect people smugglers to observing space weather. The number of space bases in Europe has increased in recent years due to the commercialization of space. For a long time, satellites were primarily used for institutional missions by national space agencies, but most European spaceport projects are now private sector initiatives.
The market has exploded with the emergence of small start-ups, modern technologies shrinking both rockets and satellites, and a rapidly growing number of applications for satellites. About 18,500 small satellites — those weighing less than 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) — are expected to be launched between 2022 and 2031, up from 4,600 in the previous decade. However, activists criticized the launch.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) Secretary General Kate Hudson said “Space is the new frontier for military escalation and spending without real public scrutiny or accountability, a space arms race that will inevitably lead to a greater risk of instability and conflict”.
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