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

On February 9, Virgin Orbital's first rocket launch in the UK in January ended in failure. The latest survey shows that the failure of the launch may be due to a "$100 part" on the LauncherOne rocket.

On January 9 this year, Virgin orbit attempted to launch a rocket at the British Cornwall spaceport. This mission is called "Start Me Up". After the company's "Cosmos Girl" modified 747s were launched, the LauncherOne rocket successfully detached, but eventually failed to orbit as planned.

Virgin Rail CEO Dan Hart revealed at a seminar on Tuesday that a failure of the rocket's second-stage engine could lead to a failed launch.

"it is now clear that there is a filter when we assemble the rocket," Hart said. but it was gone when the second-stage engine started, which means it moved and caused damage to the rocket in the following launch phase. "

The investigation is ongoing and there may be other issues that need to be addressed. But if that's the reason, "it's like a $100 part that screwed everything up," Hart added.

Virgin Orbital and the British Space Agency have launched investigations into the launch failure. The problem caused nine small satellites to crash along with the rocket. The company's carrier plane was not damaged because the problem occurred after the second stage of the rocket was fired as planned, and the rocket had been out of the plane for a few minutes.

The rocket launch is the first time Virgin orbit has launched a rocket in the UK. Prior to this, Virgin Orbital has conducted five orbital launches at Mojave Aerospace Port in southeastern California. This is also a big deal for the British Cornwall spaceport.

In 2014, Britain announced that it would build infrastructure for small satellite launches, hoping to get a piece of the fast-growing global space market. Britain already has big companies such as Airbus, Surrey satellite Technology and Clyde space.

Cornwall is not the only place targeting space. The Sutherland Space Centre (SpaceHub Sutherland) in northern Scotland and the Saxenford Spaceport (SaxaVord Spaceport) in the Islanders off the Scottish coast both plan to launch small rockets vertically later this year.

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