Attempt at first orbital satellite launch from Britain fails

British companies have manufactured satellites for years but have had to rely on rockets in places like Cape Canaveral, Florida, or New Zealand to haul them into space

The plane takes off ahead of Britain's first satellite launch, at Cornwall Airport Newquay, in Cornwall, Britain. Credit: Reuters

Britain’s attempt to get into the space launch business Monday night came up short when a 70-foot rocket stuffed with satellites failed to reach orbit, said the company providing the launch service, Virgin Orbit.

An hour after takeoff from an airstrip in Cornwall, in southwest England, a modified Boeing 747 released the rocket, which fired away as planned. It was supposed to take nine satellites up into low orbital positions 300 or more miles above the Earth, but Virgin Orbit said “an anomaly” had prevented it from succeeding. The company said it was investigating.

People in Britain’s space industry said the goal — launching satellites from British soil for the first time — would have huge importance even though Virgin Orbit, which was founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, is a California company.

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The ability to put satellites in space “will complete the picture for the UK.,” said Doug Liddle, CEO of In-Space Missions, a British satellite maker. Liddle spoke Monday afternoon from a highway service area on his way to Cornwall, where two surveillance satellites made by his company, with funding from agencies of the British and U.S. militaries, would be on the Virgin Orbit rocket.

British companies have for years manufactured satellites, only to have to rely on rockets in places like Cape Canaveral, Florida, or New Zealand to haul them into space. Having launch sites available in Britain “makes a huge difference in terms of being able to develop satellites and to fly them,” said Emma Jones, head of U.K. business development for RHEA Group, a space security firm, which also has a satellite on the Virgin Orbit rocket.

The launch would have been the first big payoff of an effort by the British government to bolster the country’s space industry in the wake of Brexit, which has strained scientific and business ties with the European Union, the country’s main trading partner.

Work at Newquay Airport in Cornwall to make it ready to handle satellites cost about 20 million pounds, or $24 million, financed with government and private money, according to Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall. Thorpe said she expected launches to generate revenue by the fifth year of operation.