An attempt to make British space history by launching a rocket from British soil failed after an “anomaly” occurred in flight.
The rocket was flown in a converted jet aircraft from Cornwall Space Center to Newquay. space girl.
The Virgin Orbit aircraft flew 35,000 feet over the Atlantic, where it launched a rocket carrying nine small satellites into space, but the rocket failed to reach orbit.
Hundreds of spectators watched the event from Newquay Airport, with more than 75,000 people watching the live stream online.
What happened to the rocket launch?
In a series of tweets, Virgin Orbit said: “It looks like we have an anomaly that is preventing us from reaching orbit. We evaluate the information.
“When we know more, we will delete our previous tweet about the orbital launch. We will share more information when we can.”
The aircraft returned safely to Cornwall while engineers tried to determine what had gone wrong.
Early Tuesday morning, Virgin Orbit released a statement saying, “Of five LauncherOne missions carrying payloads for private companies and government agencies, this is the first to fail to place their payloads on their precise target trajectory.”
CEO Dan Hart added, “While we are very proud of the many things we have successfully accomplished on this mission, we acknowledge that we have not given our customers the launch service they deserve.
“The original nature of this mission added levels of difficulty that our team handled professionally; In the end, it looks like a technical error prevented us from delivering the final order.”
Cornwall launch site director Melissa Thorpe said she was disappointed with the failure of the mission.
“This is not the first time we have been knocked down, this is definitely the biggest blow, but I feel good and we will get up and go again,” she said.
“Things didn’t go according to plan, but we did everything we promised at the Spaceport.
“To be honest, we feel terrible – I won’t lie.
“It’s heartbreaking and we’ve all heard it at different times and when we got together we had tears and it was very upsetting.
“We are a family and have been through a lot together. So when you and your family are going through something like this, at least you have support and we all get along.
“I can’t say more than heartbreaking, but it’s okay.”
Matt Archer of the UK space agency said there was an “anomaly” during the launch of the second stage, the cause of which is under investigation.
“In fact, the rocket did not reach the required altitude to maintain its orbit or deploy satellites, so the mission failed,” he said.
“In the coming days, there will be an investigation involving the government and various agencies, including Virgin Orbit, to make sure we understand what caused this technical failure and we will decide once again what to do next.”
He said burning the first stage would get the rocket into orbit, but it would take a second stage to get it up to 500 km above Earth.
“That didn’t happen last night and you saw it go into space but it didn’t get into the required orbit,” he said.
“Of course, it’s a shame that the mission failed, but we are actually very proud that we have achieved so much here and created the conditions for launch here.
“We have seen that we can do it and we will try again.”
The rocket will most likely burn up on its return to Earth, but must land over water.
Where is Cornwall Spaceport located?
The launch took place at the Cornwall Space Center at Newquay Airport.
Newquay Airport was chosen because its RAF base has one of the longest runways of any UK regional airport and direct access to the transatlantic flight route.
The area also has a low civilian population compared to many other UK airports.
The Gunhilly Earth Station, located about 35 miles southwest of the spaceport, is already a world-famous facility that has played an important role in the satellite communications industry for over 50 years.
Dhara Patel, an aerospace expert at the National Space Agency, told the BBC that this was a key factor in choosing Cornwall as the launch site.
What made Cornwall Spaceport a really attractive place is that it is in the southwest with a very dynamic space cluster,” he said. “There are a lot of companies, research centers and manufacturing plants here.
“Things like transport infrastructure are in place – you want to have good connections, but you want to be far enough away that you are not near densely populated areas – if the launch fails, you don’t want people there. “
It is expected that 50 people will be employed at this spaceport in the next three years.
Source: I News
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