WHAT'S NEXT FOR VIRGIN ORBIT?

The company set up by Sir Richard Branson to send satellites into orbit from a plane is facing an uncertain future, and that could have repercussions for the UK’s space ambitions

- David Crookes

When 2,500 onlookers began to gather in Cornwall one calm Monday evening in January, nobody really expected the night to end in failure. UK politicians were heralding the start of a new space era for Britain; those working at Spaceport Cornwall said it was transforming access to space across the world; and Dan Hart, CEO at Virgin Orbit, believed it would “soon establish the UK as the first nation with the capability to launch to orbit from western Europe.” But then the worst happened. The Start Me Up mission launched by Virgin Orbit from Spaceport Cornwall on 9 January 2023 initially appeared to have been successful. A modified Boeing 747 plane called Cosmic Girl took off horizontally with a LauncherOne rocket attached to its wing shortly after 10pm and headed across the Atlantic towards the southwest coast of Ireland. The idea was that upon reaching 35,000 feet, it would unleash the rocket into orbit and send a payload of nine satellites into space, five of which were from the UK.

And yet – despite Virgin Orbit’s initial tweet suggesting that the rocket had made it to orbit – all did not go to plan. Although the mission, funded by the UK Space Agency, dropped from the plane as planned and the first stage of the rocket successfully burned as expected, it soon became clear that something had gone wrong. The first tweet was swiftly deleted and another was issued by the company. “We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us reaching orbit,” it said. “We are evaluating the information.”