A missile carried under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 separated from the aircraft but failed to reach orbit.
The first attempt to launch a satellite from Western Europe appears to have failed after an “anomaly” was reported to have prevented the rocket from reaching orbit.
Virgin Orbit — owned by a consortium that includes the UK Space Agency and British airline tycoon Richard Branson — was trying to send nine small satellites into space from a 70-foot (21-meter) rocket attached to the wing of a modified Boeing 747.
The converted jumbo jet took off from the coastal town of Newquay in southwest England at 22:02 GMT on Monday, with the missile separating from the plane and bursting into flames over the Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 10,670 meters (35,000 feet) about an hour and 20 minutes later .
But Virgin Orbit later said there was an “anomaly that prevented us from reaching orbit”; said he would provide more information when he could.
The UK space industry employs 47,000 people, but while the country is second only to the United States in the number of satellites it produces, they have long had to be sent into orbit via foreign spaceports run by countries such as the US and Kazakhstan.
More than 2,000 space fans gathered to cheer as the plane lifted off from the Newquay runway.
Virgin Orbit said the jumbo jet returned safely to Newquay after the mission.
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