British space ambitions fall back to Earth
Investigation begins into why Launcherone failed to reach the height needed to deploy satellite payload
‘Everything looked pretty good. But then things started to go a little bit weird... I was devastated’
‘We are a spaceport now and we launched last night and we can do it again. We got into space, we’re just not sure what happened next’
BRITAIN’S ambition to become the first country in Europe to launch satellites from home soil fell to Earth with a bump this week, after a last-minute rocket failure prevented the final push into orbit. At Spaceport Cornwall yesterday, the mood was despondent as an investigation was launched into why Virgin Orbit’s inaugural UK flight flopped.
Shortly before midnight on Monday, the company announced there had been an anomaly which meant that although the Launcherone rocket had entered space, it had not reached the correct height needed to deploy the nine satellites on board.
The failure sent Virgin Orbit shares 22 per cent down when the US stock exchange opened, wiping $150million off the value of the company.
Experts told The Daily Telegraph that the telemetry and trajectory of the rocket suggested it had slowed down too early, which may have been caused by the nose cone – or fairing – failing to release cleanly. The extra weight would have prevented Launcherone from reaching the speed and height needed to enter a high enough orbit for satellites to be released. The rocket needed to reach 17,000mph but only managed 10,000mph. The fairing is designed to protect the payload while the rocket goes through the atmosphere and, if it did not release, the satellites could not be ejected.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is expected to be working alongside Virgin Orbit and the Department for Trans- port (DFT) to investigate what happened, and is expecting to release initial findings this week. Other theories include a kerosene fuel-mixing problem which could have prevented the second stage rocket from firing correctly.
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) con- firmed the second stage of the rocket had initially ignited but only fired for around one minute instead of three. It is not clear whether the rocket itself stopped firing, or Virgin Orbit pulled the plug after realising the trajectory was off. It is the first time Virgin Orbit has had an issue with the final burn.
Matt Archer, commercial space director at the UKSA, said: “What we know is that [the rocket] didn’t fire for as long as it should have done.
“The second stage ignited, so it did start, but in effect it wasn’t gaining the altitude it should have done. So it could be a whole number of things, whether it’s just engine performance, it could be something isn’t burning as it should, it could be a fairing issue. We’ve got the team and the space agency doing some work to understand its orbital pattern. A lot of it will break up and be burned to the atmosphere. So whether any of it comes down we don’t know.”
News that the rocket had failed came as a shock to satellite owners on the ground, who just moments before had been celebrating with crowds of wellwishers in a festival atmosphere.
Despite the chilly weather, space fans had gathered in their thousands to celebrate the launch, with some forming a conga line around a replica Launcherone rocket, while others danced in the silent disco tent. Josh Western, 30, joint owner of Welsh start-up Space Forge, said he was reduced to tears after realising the company’s Forgestar-0 satellite – designed to make alloys and superconductors in space – had been lost.
The satellite had been inscribed with the signature of his late grandfather, Rupert “Reckless Jeff ” Curtis, who was stationed at RAF St Mawgan, whose airfield became Newquay Airport, the home of Spaceport Cornwall.
“I was outside watching with everybody watching the livestream: my family, my wife, mum, dad, brother, everyone,” he said. “Everything looked pretty good, pretty nominal. We saw a clip of first-stage rocket admission working, which is the hardest part, so to see that work was when we were like, ‘this is going to happen’.
“But then things started to go a little bit weird. The telemetry didn’t start coming back how it should do and about 20 seconds later they said there had been an anomaly. I was devastated.”
Teams are currently searching for signs of the rocket re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and believe it may have already come down in the Pacific or Atlantic Ocean. The orbit that it reached was so low it cannot stay up for more than a couple of days without being dragged down to the surface.
The loss of the rocket will inevitably draw parallels with Britain’s ill-fated Beagle 2 mission, which was supposed to have touched down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003 to perform experiments to detect signs of alien life. Like Beagle 2, the mission started successfully, with Launcherone taking off strapped to a repurposed Boeing 747 nicknamed “Cosmic Girl” while Spaceport Cornwall blasted out the Rolling Stones’s Start Me Up.
Tickets for the event sold faster than for Glastonbury and there was a festival atmosphere as the aircraft took off at 10.02pm on Monday, amid clear, dry skies.
The team at Spaceport Cornwall was undeterred by the failure, and said they planned to launch again.
Melissa Thorpe, the chief executive of Spaceport Cornwall, said: “It was gutting, like when the air gets taken out of you. But we are a spaceport now and we launched last night and we can do it again. We got into space, we’re just not sure what happened next.”
The UKSA said that the flight counted as the first successful launch from British soil. “Did we achieve the first launch, yes we did,” added Mr Archer. “We’ve demonstrated we can launch from Cornwall, that’s absolutely a fact.”
Dan Hart, the chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said: “The first-time nature of this mission added layers of complexity that our team professionally managed. However, in the end a technical failure appears to have prevented us from delivering the final orbit.”