First-ever attempted space flight to launch in the UK fails to reach orbit

[midian182]

What just happened? The UK's first-ever orbital launch attempt took place last night, but the occasion will likely be remembered for all the wrong reasons after the satellite mission failed to reach orbit due to an undisclosed "anomaly." A disappointing end to what had been hailed as a new space era for the country.

The Virgin Orbit "Start Me Up" mission launched from Spaceport Cornwall on January 9 in front of more than 2,000 spectators, becoming the first-ever space flight attempt to launch in the UK.

The first part of the mission saw a converted Boeing 747 called Cosmic Girl take off successfully and release the LauncherOne rocket, which carried nine satellites, off the southwest coast of Ireland at 6:11 PM ET. The rocket's NewtonThree engine ignited successfully, and the first stage headed toward orbit.

As we find out more, we're removing our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We'll share more info when we can.

— Virgin Orbit (@VirginOrbit) January 9, 2023

Virgin One tweeted that the rocket had reached earth's orbit, but the company soon deleted the post and, 28 minutes after the first tweet, posted a new message confirming an anomaly had prevented the rocket from reaching the required altitude.

Matt Archer, the director of commercial spaceflight at the UK Space Agency, said that while the first-stage launch was successful, the second stage failed. An investigation looking into the failure is taking place over the coming days.

The rocket and its payload of satellites were lost. Archer said its trajectory puts it over main bodies of water, so it's "completely safe." Cosmic Girl and its crew safely returned to Spaceport Cornwall.

Ars Technica notes that the biggest loser in all this could be Virgin Orbit, a US-based small launch company. Although it had reached orbit on four of its first five attempts before yesterday's failure, it is struggling to launch enough missions to break even. Engadget writes that the UK mission was especially high-profile as it also marked the first international launch for Virgin Orbit and the first commercial launch from Western Europe.

Melissa Thorpe, the head of Spaceport Cornwall, didn't hide her disappointment "We're a resilient team. This isn't the first time we've been knocked but this is the biggest definitely. We'll get up and we'll go again," she said. "It's just absolutely devastating, and we put our hearts and soul into this. The next time we go it will be even better."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97219-first-ever-attempted-space-flight-launch-uk-fails.html

 

[SirDigby]

Was tracking this live, and such a shame. At least they were small satellites so the financial fallout and recovery time shouldn't be huge. I remember watching a documentary years ago about how long and costly it was to make larger satellites - I bet that cost has come down now, but still, I wouldn't want to be out of pocket for it!

 

[nnguy2]

Was tracking this live, and such a shame. At least they were small satellites so the financial fallout and recovery time shouldn't be huge. I remember watching a documentary years ago about how long and costly it was to make larger satellites - I bet that cost has come down now, but still, I wouldn't want to be out of pocket for it!

Makes you wonder if there's insurance for this kind of stuff...

 

[RudyBob]

anomaly......They must be Half-Life fans. Sad to hear. Space is cool and so are the Brits

 

[Vulcanproject]

Makes you wonder if there's insurance for this kind of stuff...

Yes, this was insured.

When the article says this is the UK's first orbital attempt, it must mean it is the first time a rocket attempted to launch into orbit leaving from the UK. Really the plane took off from the UK and launched the rocket out over the Atlantic, just south of Ireland. Still incredibly far north of New York for example. North of Quebec!

The UK is also the world's only country that had a space programme and successfully orbited their own satellite on their own rocket system and......quit. Almost as if they did it to see if they could do it. They did it in 1971 using a Black Arrow rocket launched in Australia. Then just said ok, we can do that. Stop now. Lol.

As a slight aside, you see that with the British nuclear weapons programme too. Britain was shut out of nuclear research after WW2, created an atomic weapon by themselves, went to the USA and asked to share research again. The USA said no, because it was just about to finalise a hydrogen bomb. So the British said ok, we'll go and make our own hydrogen bomb and after a few more years did that, went back and said see! We can do that too! Share?

The USA said ok six months later.

 

[mbrowne5061]

As a slight aside, you see that with the British nuclear weapons programme too. Britain was shut out of nuclear research after WW2, created an atomic weapon by themselves, went to the USA and asked to share research again. The USA said no, because it was just about to finalise a hydrogen bomb. So the British said ok, we'll go and make our own hydrogen bomb and after a few more years did that, went back and said see! We can do that too! Share?

The USA said ok six months later.

That's just not true. When WWII broke out, the UK delivered all their latest research on computers, radars, and atomic energy to the US, all in exchange for two things:

1. material support in WWII, first in the form of food & ammo shipments during the Battle of Britain, and then weapons too when the allies went on the offensive. That was part of their 'payment' for lend-lease.
2. the UK & US would share future developments in those technologies.

This is why the US & UK seem to continuously move in lock-step with one another when it comes to development in these departments. I doubt they go so far as sharing drawings for their designs, but they likely share detailed research papers & data. The only way the UK got "locked out" of any program is they had to build it on their own (just as the US does, too), and there is a difference between designing something on paper, building it in a lab, and mass producing it.

 

[Vulcanproject]

That's just not true. When WWII broke out, the UK delivered all their latest research on computers, radars, and atomic energy to the US, all in exchange for two things:

1. material support in WWII, first in the form of food & ammo shipments during the Battle of Britain, and then weapons too when the allies went on the offensive. That was part of their 'payment' for lend-lease.
2. the UK & US would share future developments in those technologies.

This is why the US & UK seem to continuously move in lock-step with one another when it comes to development in these departments. I doubt they go so far as sharing drawings for their designs, but they likely share detailed research papers & data. The only way the UK got "locked out" of any program is they had to build it on their own (just as the US does, too), and there is a difference between designing something on paper, building it in a lab, and mass producing it.

It's entirely true.

The Atomic Energy Act of 1946 completely shut the UK out of further nuclear development, including of course weapons, despite the Quebec agreement in 1943. It made any transfer of nuclear information and technologies outside the USA illegal. I suggest you look it up. It caused a major dispute between the British, Canada and the USA among others involved in the Manhattan project.

British scientists that supplied a great deal of the foundation theory to join the Manhattan project were sent home empty handed. Leaving with nothing but what they had gleaned after the success of the project inside their heads.

The United States had gone out of its way to separate the design of the weapons from the secrets of the production of fissile material. While the British had a rough idea about both, the technologies in particular that produced fissile material were not transferred. They were the most valuable. That is still considered the case today.

So they had to start from scratch. The British government recognised that having nuclear weapons was absolutely critical to its future status.

You seem to have missed this part of nuclear history. The USA cut out its allies until 1958, and only then assented to the return of co-operation because the British figured out all on their own how to build an H bomb.

 

[netman]

Oops...!

 

[Pensiveclown]

There's always next time.
I love how the comment section already deteriorated into an argument about nuclear weapons.

 

[Tams80]

That's just not true. When WWII broke out, the UK delivered all their latest research on computers, radars, and atomic energy to the US, all in exchange for two things:

1. material support in WWII, first in the form of food & ammo shipments during the Battle of Britain, and then weapons too when the allies went on the offensive. That was part of their 'payment' for lend-lease.
2. the UK & US would share future developments in those technologies.

This is why the US & UK seem to continuously move in lock-step with one another when it comes to development in these departments. I doubt they go so far as sharing drawings for their designs, but they likely share detailed research papers & data. The only way the UK got "locked out" of any program is they had to build it on their own (just as the US does, too), and there is a difference between designing something on paper, building it in a lab, and mass producing it.

While lend-lease was part of it, and sharing technology and research in return for US involvement and resources, there was also skulduggery going on the entire time.

I'm sure you are aware of Operation Paperclip and the like.

While on the whole, the Allies were united, there were also deep rivalries.

And the US didn't want the UK developing independent space or atomic science, so tried to put off or even sabotage it (not physically) wherever they could.

 

[John Staerck]

2:32 into the video. Is that people having to sleep on the bare floor of the C-17?

 

[Tams80]

2:32 into the video. Is that people having to sleep on the bare floor of the C-17?

Standard for military aircraft.