Britain's historic satellite launch fails after 'anomaly'

It is understood that LauncherOne rocket ran some issues during its second stage

Virgin Orbit said on Tuesday that an anomaly in their LauncherOne rocket stopped it from reaching orbit, causing the historic mission to fail.

"We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit," the company said. "We are evaluating the information."

Virgin's LauncherOne rocket was carried under the wing of a customised Boeing 747 - dubbed "Cosmic Girl" after teh Jamiroquai song - or the horizontal launch mission, which took off from the seaside town of Newquay in southwest England.

The rocket was subsequently launched over the Atlantic Ocean.

On Monday evening, thousands of people gathered near Newquay airport's rain-soaked runway to witness 'Cosmic Girl' take off, creating a festival atmosphere.

"Like the song says once we start it up we'll never stop," Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said after the initial take off.

However, the mission came to an abrupt end in less than two hours when the rocket was unable to achieve the orbit required to release its payload of nine satellites.

It is understood that LauncherOne ran some issues during its second stage after release from Cosmic Girl.

The rocket was released from the aircraft 35,000 feet over the Atlantic, off the southern coast of Ireland. The first stage seemed to go as planned, with the spaceship bursting into life after roughly four seconds before speeding to more than 8,000 miles per hour.

A short while later, the second stage was meant to eject the nine aboard satellites into orbit, and this was crucial moment when the as-yet-undefined "anomaly" is believed to have happened.

About 30 minutes after the rocket dropped from the aircraft, Virgin Orbit reported the problem.

Matt Archer, from the UK Space Agency, said the specific cause of the anomaly is still being looked at.

"In effect, the rocket has not reached the required altitude to maintain its orbit or deploy the satellites," he said.

During the second stage, the rocket needed to be put some 500 kilometres above the Earth.

The mission failure meant that the rocket carrying the nine satellites will eventually burn up on re-entry, destroying all satellites. Nine satellites, each roughly the size of a cereal box, were designed to conduct a variety of activities in orbit, including marine research, detection of illegal fishing and piracy, and national security.

Archer said the mission outcome was very disappointing for the team and that the investigation would involve the government and agencies including Virgin Orbit.

"We knew this had a risk of failure," he added. "Launches don't always work. We'll pick up with Virgin Orbit and think about what happens next."

According to Virgin, Cosmic Girl's part of the mission was a success, and the aircraft made a safe landing back at Newquay Airport before midnight.

A successful launch would have made Britain the first nation in Europe to launch satellites from its home soil.

The European Space Agency (ESA) currently uses a spaceport in French Guiana.