Virgin Orbit launch – as it happened: UK rocket ‘burns in atmosphere’ as failure casts doubt over future missions

Mission was set to be first ever rocket launch from UK soil

Virgin Orbit: Space agency chief ‘doesn’t know’ what went wrong as mission fails to reach orbit

The UK’s first-ever space mission has failed after “an anomaly” prevented the Virgin Orbit rocket from reaching orbit.

The rocket and the nine satellites it was carrying, reportedly burned up in the atmosphere after the launch failed.

It was projected to land over water, but burned up in Earth’s atmosphere on reentry, according to New Scientist.

Shortly before midnight, an official on the live stream announced the rocket suffered an “anomaly” that meant it failed to reach orbit.

The launch was an opportunity for Virgin Orbit to show its investors what it was capable of, but the failure has led to its tanking as much as a third in after-hours trading and is set for a $200m fall.

The launch was set to be the first-ever rocket launch from UK soil, as well as the first time that satellites have been launched from Europe.

Virgin Orbit’s unusual system sees a plane carry the rocket up to 35,000 feet, before dropping it off to carry its satellites into space.

Key Points

• UK space mission fails
• Small seaside town awaits western Europe’s first ever satellite launch
• UK Space Agency excited for launch

[9 January 2023 22:50 · Andrew Griffin]

SpaceX capsule undocks from International Space Station

Elsewhere in space, a SpaceX capsule has just detached from the International Space Station and is on its way back down to Earth.

[9 January 2023 22:54 · Andrew Griffin]

Here’s another view of the plane on a map. Looks like it’s moving into its “race track”, where it’ll go round and round a little to ensure it’s ready to “drop” its rocket. Just over 15 minutes until that happens.

(Virgin Orbit)

[9 January 2023 22:57 · Andrew Griffin]

150,000 people track plane as it gets ready to launch

There are almost 150,000 people tracking the plane as it goes around its “race track”, getting ready for the launch, according to FlightRadar.

(FlightRadar24)

It’s by far the most popular plane on the service. And the second plane most tracked plane – with 22,000 people watching it – is a seemingly otherwise unremarkable flight from Madrid to Keflavik in Iceland, which just happens to be going sort of near ‘Cosmic Girl’.

(FlightRadar24)

[9 January 2023 23:02 · Andrew Griffin]

Plane successfully takes off ahead of rocket launch

Here’s the latest round-up from the Press Association, on everything that has happened before and is about to happen. (There’s about 7 minutes until the “drop”.)

The Virgin Orbit plane carrying the first rocket to launch into space from UK soil has taken off from Spaceport Cornwall.

As the Start Me Up mission lifted off from the runway at Cornwall Airport Newquay, hundreds of people cheered and Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones was blasted out on loudspeakers.

Named in tribute to the Stones’ 1981 hit, the mission involves a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket.

The 747, dubbed Cosmic Girl, took off horizontally from the new facility while carrying the rocket under a wing.

Around an hour into the flight the rocket will be released at 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland.

The plane will then return to the spaceport while the rocket will ignite its engine and take multiple small satellites, with a variety of civil and defence applications, into orbit.

Before the launch, the team behind the historic moment spoke of their immense excitement as they prepared for take-off.

Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the UK Space Agency, described his “immense excitement”.

“Who would not be excited by the fact this is the first time that it has been done in Europe? That’s because it’s hard,” he said.

“There is a point where the training takes over and you fall into that rhythm of the teams knowing what they need to do.

“They know when they need to make the decisions they need to make.

“I would say the real achievements here are not the successes that you can necessarily see but all of the challenges that collectively as a team people have overcome.

“The culmination of all of that is putting these exciting missions into space. It’s the things at the pointy end of the rocket that really matter.”

[9 January 2023 23:11 · Andrew Griffin]

Drop to happen any time now

The “drop ready” time has arrived – the rocket is prepared to drop off its plane and head into space.

[9 January 2023 23:13 · Andrew Griffin]

Rocket on its way to space

The rocket has “dropped” and is now burning fuel as it heads up into space.

(Virgin Orbit)

(Virgin Orbit)

[9 January 2023 23:13 · Andrew Griffin]

First ever satellite launch from Europe successfully blasts off

Here’s our full story on today’s successful launch.

[9 January 2023 23:18 · Andrew Griffin]

Rocket flicking through ground stations as it careens up into space

The rocket is gradually moving through various ground stations as it sends data back down to Earth. It just switched to Madrid, as it flies south over the globe as well as going upwards.

[9 January 2023 23:21 · Andrew Griffin]

First burn of second stage complete

The rocket’s journey is nearing its end. It just finished the first burn of its second stage. It’s got another burn, then that engine will cut off, and then the payload will be deployed and the mission can be declared a success. This bit all happens very quickly.

You can follow all of that live on YouTube here.

(As all this happens, the plane ‘Cosmic Girl’ is making its way back to land in Newquay. Virgin Orbit isn’t really tracking that anymore but you can watch it on FlightRadar here.)

[9 January 2023 23:28 · Andrew Griffin]

Live stream hit by complaints on YouTube

The official live stream is currently being hit by a flurry of complaints. The thrust of them is mostly that while the mission might have been a pioneering success, the video of it certainly wasn’t.

Complaints have included everything from the music (it’s true; it’s just one bland piece of music on repeat, which makes you feel like you’re on hold) to technical problems with the video and with glitches. Others just complain it’s boring – especially since there’s very little to see.

Live streams of rocket launches are always hit by complaints of this kind, of course, just like everything on the internet. But they do seem particularly vociferous, here.