The first orbital launch attempt from the UK ends in failure
Enlarge / A screen capture from Virgin Orbit's webcast showing the rocket's main engine firing nominally. (credit: Virgin Orbit)
Everything went well during the initial phases of a historic launch attempt by Virgin Orbit on Monday night as the rocket started its journey to space over the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Ireland.
Shortly after the LauncherOne rocket was dropped from the Cosmic Girl aircraft, its NewtonThree main engine lighted smartly and the first stage climbed toward orbit. The first-stage engine's shutdown appeared to be nominal, with the second stage igniting to complete the 8.5-minute burn to low Earth orbit.
Unfortunately, after this point, the information from Virgin Orbit's webcast and its Twitter feed became confusing. Although the webcast telemetry data suggested that the rocket's altitude started dropping, the host said nothing about this and instead explained that telemetry data from the rocket could be erratic. And a few minutes later, Virgin Orbit tweeted that its rocket and nine payloads had successfully reached orbit.