Britain’s historic attempt to launch the first commercial satellites from western Europe failed on Monday night when Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket suffered an “anomaly” that prevented it from reaching orbit.
The failed mission is a severe blow not just for the UK, which had hoped to beat rival spaceports in Norway and Sweden to claim the crown as Europe’s leading provider of launch services, but also to Virgin Orbit, which was aiming to prove that its horizontal launch system could fly satellites from anywhere in the world with a suitable runway.
It is also a significant setback for the seven customers that had satellites on the Virgin Orbit rocket, launched from Newquay airport, Cornwall, just after 10pm.
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