Virgin Orbit´s Start Me Up mission heralded as start of new space era has been unsuccessful after the rocket carried by Boeing 747 failed to deliver satellites into orbit
The first rocket launch carrying satellites from the UK has failed to reach orbit, after successfully taking off from Cornwall in England.
The Virgin Orbit rocket was attached to a specially converted Boeing 747 that launched it into space above the Atlantic ocean.
According to a report by Reuters on Tuesday, January 10, the company has now announced that the failure is due to an anomaly, that prevented its rocket to reach the Earth´s orbit.
A statement in the report by Virgin Orbit said, “We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit”, adding, “We are evaluating the information.”
Part of the Start Me UP mission, this rocket launch was meant to created history, as it was aimed to be the first time a rocket carrying satellites had been sent from Europe.
Thousands of people had gathered to see the launch at Spaceport Cornwall, as the Boeing took off.
Founded by the British billionaire Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit has already completed four similar missions, that were launched from the U.S.
This mission failure comes as a major blow for the European space agencies, following the failure to launch the Italian-built Vega-C rocket mission failure in December 2022.
Until now, UK has been manufacturing satellites as well as interpreting the data sent by them but has never successfully launched them.
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