JAKARTA - The historic moment for Britain had to turn into tears after the country's satellite launch mission failed to reach orbit. Virgin Orbit's mission "Start Me Up" was the first rocket to be launched from British soil.
The mission's first phase proved successful, the Cosmic Girl rocket carrier took off from Spaceport Cornwell on January 9 as planned and launched a LauncherOne rocket over the Atlantic Ocean at 23:11 GMT.
According to Virgin Orbit's mission update live on Twitter, the LauncherOne rocket experienced a successful phase separation and a second phase of engine lighting. However, a few minutes later the problem arose which caused the rocket to fail to reach orbit.
The LauncherOne rocket carries a payload of nine satellites, the first of which is produced in Wales. This satellite was not released and lost with the LauncherOne rocket. The Cosmic Girl and its crew returned safely to Spaceport Cornwall.
"It's really devastating, and we put our hearts and souls into it. We feel bad, to be honest, I won't lie. There are tears, and it's very disappointing," said Spaceport head Cornwall Melissa Thorpe in a statement quoted by The Verge of the Guardian., Wednesday, January 11th.
"It's a joke but we've proven that we're a spaceport. We launched last night. Next time we go, it's going to be better," he added.
One possible cause of its failure was fairing, which wrapped the rocket didn't fall as expected, and slowed it down.
Commercial Space Director (UKSA), Matt Archer when asked if the cause of the failure was fairness, he replied, "All we know is that (rockets) don't turn on as long as they should. It doesn't get the height needed," Archer said.
"It could be a lot of things, whether it's just machine performance or something that doesn't catch fire. This could be a matter of fairness," he added.
Although the mission didn't go as expected, according to Archer it proved the launch could be made from England and could be claimed to be the first European country to launch a satellite.
"We've launched it. We know that not everything worked, but we made it to space," Archer said.
Archer added that currently Virgin Orbit and UKSA are trying to find rocket and satellite debris.
Many will burst and burn into the atmosphere. So if anything goes down, we don't know, but given the track past the poles, passing through the water body, I don't expect it to be a problem," Archer said.
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