An attempt to launch the first rocket into space from British soil ended in failure overnight Monday to Tuesday, a “anomalies“having prevented its launch into orbit.
“It seems that we have an anomaly which prevents us from reaching the orbit“tweeted Virgin Orbit, the company organizing this mission which was to catapult the United Kingdom into the club”exclusive“countries capable of sending spacecraft into space.
A historic mission
The Virgin Orbit Boeing 747 carrying the 21-metre rocket took off at 22:02 GMT (23:02 HB) on Monday evening from Spaceport Cornwall, a consortium that includes Virgin Orbit and the UK Space Agency, at Newquay Airport in the south west of England.
The purpose of the mission was to launch nine satellites into space, which would have been a major first for the UK. The rocket then separated from the plane and its engines ignited at a height of 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, at around 2315 GMT. But'”anomaliesof an unspecified nature prevented it from reaching the intended orbit.
