Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, January 10, according to CCTV, on the night of January 9, local time, there was an anomaly in the "Start Me Up" orbital mission that Virgin orbit took off from the UK for the first time in history.

The company's carrier plane, the Cosmos Girl, a Boeing 747 modified with a LauncherOne rocket, took off from Cornwall Spaceport at 23:09 GMT. The first stage completed the mission smoothly, and the second part of the LauncherOne was separated as planned in about 3.5 minutes.

Shortly after that, the superior of his rocket finished burning for nearly five minutes and then entered the taxiing phase. It was at this stage that something went wrong. The company said that due to an "abnormal situation" in LauncherOne, the satellite carried by the Cosmos Girl was temporarily unable to enter its intended orbit.

Virgin orbit said it was evaluating the information and had not yet commented on whether the launch was a success or failure. In addition, the company has just said that its "Universe Girl" has safely returned to Newkey Airport in Cornwall.

Unfortunately, this failure will result in the loss of nine LEO low-Earth orbit satellites. The satellites are experimental satellites built in orbit by the British company Space Forge, including several British defence cube satellites, two of which are used to study the ionosphere, and an experimental global navigation satellite co-funded by the European Space Agency.

The CTOnews.com query found that the name of the mission "Start Me Up" was taken from a famous song released by the Rolling Stones in 1981, and that the previous five Virgin orbit missions originated at Mojave Aerospace Port in southeastern California. "Start Me Up" is the equivalent of a new launch chapter for the company, but unfortunately it did not succeed.

And "Start Me Up" is also a big deal for Britain. Tickets to watch "Girl Cosmos" take off from Cornwall Spaceport are sold out faster than at Britain's iconic Glastonbury Music Festival, according to Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of BSA.

Today, a group of space enthusiasts from Cornwall and other parts of southwest England braved the cold to witness this historic moment. Although it was only a few showers and gusts, the impact of the failure of the launch was bound to be colder than the feeling of 9 ℃ at the scene. Although they did not see the rocket fall, they witnessed the safe return of the "Space Girl" to the airport.

After fueling, the LauncherOne rocket weighs about 29 tons and is about 21 meters long. It can send a 500kg load into a 500km solar synchronous orbit.

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