First satellite launch from the UK failed due to an ‘anomaly’

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket and a group of nine satellites it was taking to low-Earth orbit burned up in the atmosphere as the launch failed

By Alex Wilkins

The first orbital satellite launch from the UK took off from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay, England but failed to deploy its satellites to orbit. Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, which took off attached to a Boeing-747 plane at 10.01pm GMT, began its ascent to orbit after about an hour into the flight, but around 25 minutes later the launcher “suffered an anomaly” and had to abort its mission. The rocket and its satellites burned up in Earth’s atmosphere on reentry.

Thousands of people were …