First UK rocket launch gets ready to blast off on Monday
THE first rocket launch from UK soil is expected within days after Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit said it planned to fly as soon as next week.
The space company said the launch window for its “Start Me Up” rocket mission would begin at 10.16pm on Monday. The mission will take off from Spaceport Cornwall, in Newquay. It also has backup dates later in January if the flight has to be postponed.
Strong winds and heavy rain are expected on Sunday night and Monday until the early afternoon off the coast of Cornwall, according to the Met Office.
Virgin’s mission will launch a rocket from under the wing of a Boeing 747, called Cosmic Girl. The plane will take off from Newquay airport on Monday night and drop its Launcherone rocket from beneath its wing while flying off the coast of Ireland at 37,000ft.
The rocket will then blast into space and release satellites into orbit.
Among its payload are satellites from UK and US defence agencies. It will also include commercial monitoring and research satellites, such as a module from Welsh start-up Spaceforge, which is aiming to develop in-orbit manufacturing, and a navigation spacecraft, called the Dover Pathfinder, designed to offer a form of back-up to GPS.
Virgin Orbit said its rocket module had now been attached to its Boeing 747 ready for launch, and it had completed a pre-flight rehearsal and checks.
The mission will be the first rocket
launch from UK soil, and is 50 years after the first British-built rocket, Black Arrow, reached space from the Australian outback. Ian Annett, from the UK Space Agency, said: “This is a significant landmark for the nation.”
Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said: “It is gratifying to see this historic endeavour on the verge of coming to fruition.”