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'This is genuinely historic, the UK winning the European race to be the first country to launch satellites, with our allies the Norwegians close behind us. Participants were seen dancing in a conga line alongside a replica of the rocketĬelebrating the historic launch, science minister George Freeman told The Daily Mail before news of the hiccup: 'We've been a powerhouse in space for years but I'd liken us to a Formula One pit lane, but without a car in the race, and tonight we have that car, and it's just the start, and we're already planning the next launches. Once the Boeing 747 reached the drop site, the pilots flew her in a looping 'racetrack' pattern ahead of the rocket launch.Ĭosmic Girl returned to Cornwall Spaceport at about 23:55 GMT.Ī silent disco was held before the launch. The upper deck, which was the former premium and economy cabin, has been converted into a small mission control room for launch engineers to oversee the mission the during flight. To prepare Cosmic Girl for the launch, the interior of the main deck was gutted of all seats and overhead bins to reduce the weight. LauncherOne then hurtled towards space at 8,000 mph, heading in the direction of Portugal as it ascended, before breaking through the Earth's atmosphere. This made the jumbo bank hard to the right, taking it away from the moment the rocket ignited four seconds after falling. Matthew 'Stanny' Stannard, an RAF squadron leader who is on secondment as Virgin Orbit's chief pilot, was at the controls, while his co-pilot Eric Bippert pushed the 'big red button' to drop Sir Richard Branson's rocket at about 23:10 GMT. While engineers tried to establish what went wrong, the plane returned to Spaceport Cornwall safely.ĭespite the hiccup, it has still been a momentous night for the country's space industry, as the UK officially entered the space race more than 70 years after the British space programme was established in 1952.Ĭosmic Girl reached an altitude of 35,000ft and deployed LauncherOne when it reached the launch zone above the Atlantic Ocean, just off the south coast of Ireland. ‘We put our heart and soul into this, it's such a personal journey for me as well - my family were here so yeah, it's pretty rough.' Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, told reporters: ‘I’m not going to lie, it’s gutting - we all heard at different times, so once we all got together, there were tears, and it was very upsetting.‘ 'As we find out more, we're removing our previous tweet about reaching orbit.

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In a series of tweets, Virgin Orbit said: 'We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. The rocket was carrying nine small satellites meant for UK defence monitoring, while others were for businesses such as those working in navigational technology. The rocket was successfully released from the jumbo jet at 11.10pm over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland at 35,000 feet (around 10,000 meters). The Cosmic Girl jet took off horizontally from the new facility while carrying the rocket under a wing. Named in tribute to the Stones' 1981 hit, the mission involves a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 and Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket. Viewers whooped and danced to Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones as the jet took off, with people climbing onto each other shoulders to see the launch. 'Over the coming days, there will be an investigation involving the Government and various bodies, including Virgin Orbit, to make sure we understand what caused that technical failure and again we'll work out what to do next.'Ī repurposed 747 jumbo jet – named Cosmic Girl by Virgin – took off from Newquay Airport at 10.02pm on Monday, after all the commercial flights had ended. 'In effect the rocket has not reached the required altitude to maintain its orbit or deploy the satellites and therefore the mission was unsuccessful,' he told reporters at Spaceport Cornwall. Matt Archer, from the UK Space Agency, said the second stage of the launch suffered an 'anomaly', the cause of which was under investigation. British astronaut Tim Peake branded the mission's outcome as 'disappointing' and said: 'Getting to space is hard and valuable lessons will be learned'

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