It’s a giant leap for Britain’s space industry: the first rocket to ever launch into space from British soil successfully detached from the refurbished aircraft carrying it on Monday, catapulting the country into the club” exclusive” capable of sending vehicles into orbit.
The Virgin Orbit Boeing 747 carrying the 21-meter rocket lifted off at 22:02 GMT on Monday evening from Newquay Airport in south-west England to launch nine satellites into space, a UK first. United.
The rocket then separated from the plane and its engines ignited at a height of 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, around 2315 GMT, to reach the intended orbit .
It will later place its nine satellites into orbit and the aircraft will return to Spaceport Cornwall, a consortium that includes Virgin Orbit and the UK Space Agency, at Cornwall’s Newquay Airport.
The mission, called “Start Me Up” in reference to the Rolling Stones hit, is carried out by British billionaire Richard Branson’s company Virgin Orbit, which specializes in space launches for small satellites.
This is the first time that satellites will be launched from Europe (excluding Russia), UK Space Agency Deputy Director Ian Annett said on Sunday, calling the launch a “new era” for space exploration.
“Joining this very exclusive club of launch countries is so important because it gives us our own access to space, this sovereign access to space that we have never had before in the United Kingdom”, underlined Monday on the BBC Melissa Thorpe, manager of Spaceport Cornwall from where the plane took off.
From a geopolitical point of view, “it gives us control over who and how we organize our launches”, she added, recalling that Europe had lost its access to the Russian Soyuz launcher since the invasion of Ukraine, compromising its access to space.
Nine satellites
The 21-meter rocket, dubbed LauncherOne, was attached under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 called “Cosmic Girl”. Once the correct altitude was reached, the plane released the rocket which then started its own engine to propel itself into space and place its cargo in orbit.
Launching a rocket from an airplane is easier than a vertical take-off because theoretically a simple airstrip is enough, instead of an expensive space launch pad.
This is not the first time that Virgin Orbit, which offers a fast and adaptable space launch service for satellites between 300 and 500 kg, has put rockets launched from planes into orbit.
Founded in 2017 by British billionaire Richard Branson, the company succeeded for the first time in January 2021 in putting a rocket into space using this method, after a Boeing 747 took off in the Californian desert.
For the UK launch, nine satellites are to be put into orbit with varying purposes, “from Earth observation to monitoring illegal fishing to building satellites and products to manufacture them in space” , explained Melissa Thorpe.
Until then, British satellites had to be launched into space from abroad but the country is seeking to support its aerospace industry after its role in European projects was called into question by Brexit.
In addition to the Spaceport in Cornwall, the United Kingdom wants to open a space base in Sutherland in the north of Scotland and another on an island in Shetland. According to a statement from the Scottish government in early January, launches are planned from these two bases “in the coming months”.