Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit was scrambling on Tuesday to untangle the causes of its failed attempt to put satellites into orbit from Cornwall in south-west England.
The launch late on Monday evening was meant to have been a historic moment for Britain, which was aiming to become the first country to put a commercial payload into space from western Europe. It was also the first attempt by Virgin Orbit, 75 per cent controlled by Branson’s Virgin Group, to deploy its unique “horizontal launch system” outside the US.
However, within minutes of being released from the converted 747 jumbo jet at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, the US-built LauncherOne rocket encountered problems. “At some point during the firing of the rocket’s second stage engine and with the rocket travelling at a speed of more than 11,000 miles per hour, the system experienced an anomaly, ending the mission prematurely,” the company said in the early hours of Tuesday morning.