January 9, 2023 – a day that should have been historic for the British space industry – will unfortunately only be remembered for the failure of Virgin Orbit. LauncherOne rocket with air launchAir launch is a method of launching rockets or aircraft from an altitude of several kilometers, where they are delivered by a launch vehicle. The means of delivery is most often another aircraft, but it is possible to use a balloon or an airship, which Richard Branson’s company developed was unable to reach its orbital target due to “anomalies”.

We help

On January 9 at 17:02 EST (around midnight Kyiv), Cosmic Girl – a converted Boeing 747 with a rocket attached under the wing – took off from the Cornwall Spaceport. At 18:11 (1:11 Kyiv time) he reached the required altitude (10,000 m) above the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland and launched LauncherOne with its payload.

While telemetry data during the live broadcast of the launch showed that the rocket’s altitude was decreasing, the presenter did not report the problems, noting that the information could be erroneous. Minutes later, Virgin Orbit tweeted that the rocket booster and payload had reached orbit.

“LauncherOne has once again successfully entered Earth orbit. Our mission is not yet complete, but we welcome the people of Great Britain!” the company announced in a tweet.

The company later removed the post, saying there was an “anomaly that prevented the rocket from entering orbit.”

Course

FINANCIAL MANAGER

Become a professional financial manager and earn from $500 in 2 months.

REGISTER!

Be clear that you choose to use responsive orbits. We are evaluating the information.

— Virgin Orbit (@VirginOrbit) January 9, 2023

The mission, called Start Me Up, carried nine small satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 555 km. The launch was provided by the US National Intelligence Service, and the main payload of the rocket was:

• Two Prometheus-2 cubesats built by the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) of the UK Ministry of Defence;
• Two CIRCE cubesats developed by DSTL and the US Naval Research Laboratory;
• Cubesat for demonstration of DOVER navigation technologies, built by Open Cosmos;
• ForgeStar-0 is the first satellite of Space Forge, a space engineering startup based in Wales;
• IOD-3 AMBER is the first satellite in the constellation of marine satellites for the British company Horizon Technologies;
• Cubsat STORK-6 for the Polish company SatRevolution;
• AMAN is the first cubesat for the Government of Oman.

The mission was to be the first orbital launch carried out from the territory of the United Kingdom.

“Incredible work has been done to bring the UK into orbit for the first time tonight. Good luck to the whole team,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wrote a few hours before the launch.

Expert work is to be had at the UK’s first link from an orbital satellite tonight.

Good luck to the entire team ?️

— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) January 9, 2023

LauncherOne’s previous four launches from California’s Mojave Air Space Port, between January 2021 and July 2022, were successful, with only one failed attempt in May 2020, when the rocket’s first stage engine shut down shortly after ignition.

The launch from the UK was also set to be a key event for Virgin Orbit, which is struggling to generate revenue. The company plans to at least double the number of launches in 2023. Virgin Orbit was supposed to conduct three launches in 2022, but ended the year with just two, pushing the Start Me Up mission to January 2023.

Shares in Virgin Orbit fell 30% on Monday night after the company confirmed that its first launch from the UK had failed, according to CNBC.

The United Kingdom has been working on commercial spaceports for several years to capture a large share of the fast-growing global space market, which is estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion by 2040. The UK’s $20 billion space industry supported around 47,000 jobs between 2019 and 2020, according to the latest government figures.

Source: Spacenews, Arstechnica