LauncherOne rocket launch failed. It did not enter the orbit where it was supposed to place the transported small satellites, said Virgin Orbit, which is responsible for the mission of launching the first space rocket from Western Europe. The reason for canceling the mission was not specified.
The Cosmic Girl aircraft, a Boeing 747 adapted for a new role, took off on Monday evening from Spaceport Cornwall in southwest England, and after an hour, at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, the LauncherOne rocket it carried detached from it to place in low orbit, nine satellites carried.
As the company responsible for the mission, Virgin Orbit, said a moment later, “it seems that we have an anomaly that prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating this information.” It has not yet been specified what exactly happened, and shortly after the Cosmic Girl plane returned to Earth, Virgin Orbit ended its transmission of the mission.
The Cosmic Girl Saolot that launched the LouncherOne rocketENEX
Virgin Orbit Mission
The 21-meter LauncherOne rocket was supposed to put nine very small satellites into orbit, to perform tasks such as taking pictures of the Earth’s surface, observing the seas and oceans to detect illegal fishing and piracy, collecting information on atmospheric conditions and observing climate change.
One of these satellites, Stork-6, belongs to the Polish company SatRev and was supposed to transmit images of the Earth’s surface. For now, it is also not clear whether the satellites have been lost or not.
The launch of the Cosmic Girl rocket launcher and its return to Earth two hours later were watched at Spaceport Cornwall by about two thousand people who managed to get tickets for the event.
Virgin Orbit is a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, a conglomerate owned by British billionaire Richard Branson.
Main photo source: ENEX