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 23:30 · Andrew Griffin]

‘Cosmic Girl’ about halfway home after groundbreaking mission

‘Cosmic Girl’, the former passenger plane that dropped off the rocket for its big launch, is about halfway back to Newquay as it prepares to land where right back where it took off, about 90 minutes ago.

(FlightRadar24)

[9 January 2023 23:45 · Andrew Griffin]

Frustration over the poor quality of the feed is continuing to grow.

Historically, Virgin Orbit and Virgin Galactic have been very keen on using these live streams for marketing, showing a wide variety of products as well owner Richard Branson.

But they’ve also always been less spectacular than those run by Nasa and rivals SpaceX, presumably in part because those companies have so much more practice.

As a reminder, you can decide for yourself by watching the live feed here:

[9 January 2023 23:47 · Andrew Griffin]

Mission has failed

Someone just appeared on the live stream to announce that the rocket suffered an “anomaly” that means it will fail to reach orbit.

No further information was given, but some was promised soon.

Until then it looks like the mission has failed.

[9 January 2023 23:52 · Andrew Griffin]

Plane coming back to land

The live stream is currently showing video of the ‘Cosmic Girl’ plane coming back to land at Newquay.

(Virgin Orbit)

There’s been no further information given on the stream or anywhere else about what actually happened to the rocket.

[9 January 2023 23:56 · Andrew Griffin]

‘Cosmic Girl’ arrives on the ground

‘Cosmic Girl’ has touched back down at Spaceport Cornwall.

(Virgin Orbit)

On the live stream, the company is hailing the success of the plane part of the mission.

But once more it is notably not giving any detail about what happened to the rocket, or how the mission failed.

[10 January 2023 00:00 · Andrew Griffin]

Virgin Orbit deletes apparently false tweet about mission

Virgin Orbit had previously announced that the rocket had reached orbit, and that it was just waiting for final confirmation of the satellite payload being deployed. But it now says it is deleting that tweet, which appears to have been untrue.

[10 January 2023 00:12 · Andrew Griffin]

Virgin Orbit ends live stream – with no information given

The already controversial live stream has already ended, with no further information given beyond the rocket having had an “anomaly”.

A mission controller appeared on screen to announce that the feed would be coming to an end.

“We have experienced an anomaly. And we are gathering more information,” he said, before thanking Virgin Orbit’s customers, staff and others involved in the launch.

“We’re going to be ending our live stream at this pint but please be sure to check our other channels – our social media channels – for more information as soon as it’s available.”

Virgin Orbit’s social media channels are yet to give any detailed information on what has gone wrong – or even exactly what happened at the end of the launch.

(Twitter/Virgin Orbit)

[10 January 2023 00:15 · Andrew Griffin]

Launch appears to have gone wrong at the last moment

From both the live stream and people on the ground, it sounds like all of the mission went right until the very end. Technical problems appear to have meant that the payload isn’t in the right orbit.

That might explain the confusion in Virgin Orbit’s tweets: it’s possible that the satellites have made it into orbit, but not on the path needed. (If so they’ll likely be useless, and may well just burn up very quickly.)

[10 January 2023 00:22 · Andrew Griffin]

Failed launch could bring embarrassment for politicians – and major money problems for Virgin Orbit

This was a very important launch for a lot of people, who have spent recent days playing up how much of a success it would be.

It could be embarrassing for the politicians who had hailed the launch as a major first step for their plans for the UK to become a space nation, with a range of space ports across the country and the ability to cheaply and easily launch new satellites. Business minister Grant Shapps had appeared during the live stream making such predictions.

But it could be outright worrying for Virgin Orbit itself. The company was spun out of Richard Branson’s private space company Virgin Galactic in 2017, with a whole host of hopes about how it could make a success of private satellite launches. Instead, it has struggled to make money, and its share price is down 80 per cent since it was listed last year.

Lots of people had been banking on today’s mission being a success, and the first of many. A lot of work will have to be done to try and save that future now.

[10 January 2023 00:33 · Andrew Griffin]

Here’s the latest wrap from Reuters in Newquay, on where we are after what appears to have been a failed mission:

The first attempt to launch a satellite from western Europe appeared to have failed early on Tuesday when Virgin Orbit reported an “anomaly” that had prevented its rocket from reaching orbit.

The mission had left from the coastal town of Newquay in southwest England, with Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket carried under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 and later released over the Atlantic Ocean.

“We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit,” the company said. “We are evaluating the information.”

The apparent failure deals a further blow to European space ambitions after an Italian-built Vega-C rocket mission failed after lift-off from French Guiana in late December.

The rockets have since been grounded.

Virgin Orbit, part-owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, had planned to deploy nine small satellites into lower Earth orbit (LEO) in its first mission outside its United States base.

Launch officials were not immediately available for further comment. The company had earlier said on Twitter that LauncherOne had reached earth orbit, a tweet it later deleted.

A graphic display on an official video feed showed the mission at second-engine cut-off, three steps short of payload deployment about two hours after take-off.

The carrier aircraft, called “Cosmic Girl” returned to Newquay spaceport shortly after the rocket suffered the anomaly.

You can read our full story on the failure here.