Virgin Orbit loses its first rocket shortly after engine ignition

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  After being released from Cosmic Girl, LauncherOne ignited its engine successfully. [credit: VirginOrbit ]

After more than seven years of development, testing, and preparation, Virgin Orbit reached an important moment on Monday-dropping and igniting its LauncherOne rocket over the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, shortly after ignition an "anomaly" occurred, the company said.

"LauncherOne maintained stability after release, and we ignited our first stage engine, NewtonThree," the company stated on Twitter. "An anomaly then occurred early in first stage flight. We'll learn more as our engineers analyze the mountain of data we collected today."

This was the company's first attempt to ignite LauncherOne. Previously, it had strapped the liquid-fueled rocket to its modified 747 aircraft and flown out over the Pacific Ocean but not released the booster from beneath the plane's wing.

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