UK’s first-ever rocket mission suffers anomaly as satellites fail to reach orbit

UK space mission, one of the historic moments for the UK, has turned out to be a huge disappointment after a rocket carrying the first satellites launched from British soil failed to reach orbit. The Virgin Orbit, a converted Boeing 747, took off from Cornwall with LauncherOne on 9 January and headed out across the Atlantic, reported The Guardian. 

The viewers gathered to physically witness this historic moment and much excitement was seen on the social media platforms where people were keeping a close check on Virgin Orbit's official Twitter account. The official account of the company was sharing the updates minute by minute during the UK space mission launch. Virgin Orbit tweeted that they have successfully released a rocket, called LauncherOne, which has carried nine satellites, and wrote, "LauncherOne has … successfully reached Earth orbit! Our mission isn’t over yet, but our congratulations to the people of the UK! This is already the first-ever orbital mission from British soil – an enormous achievement.” Later, the tweet was deleted by them as they were still finding out more information about the mission. 

This tweet came after Virgin Orbit shared that there has been a rocket anomaly. Taking to Twitter, they wrote, "  “We appear to have an anomaly that has prevented us from reaching orbit. We are evaluating the information.” 

Further, they shared that the plane, Cosmic Girl, has safely returned to Cornwall. 

To keep the spirit high for the virgin management crew who have worked tirelessly, Virgin Orbit has posted a video with a message that reads, "Dear #VirginFamily, thanks for the well wishes! Hats off to our crew for working tirelessly to prepare for #StartMeUp, our historic launch from the UK. Let’s make history! #CountdownToCornwall." 

Disappointed yet hopeful: UK space Misson 

As the news of Rocket Anomaly was shared, people who came who had been to Spaceport Cornwall to watch the launch started to leave the site. Meanwhile, Melissa Thorpe, head of UK Spaceport, said, "We put so much into this, everybody has and we're like a big family. So it is absolutely gutting." She further said that they don't have a lot of information about the cause of the anomaly and would wait until experts have looked into the problem.

"It’s really just been amazing and the experience itself was phenomenal," Louise Morey told to BBC after the failed space mission.

Jim Bradshaw, who watched the take off from the viewing area with his sons Matty and Ashley, said they all enjoyed the atmosphere despite the rocket reportedly having suffered an "anomaly" that prevented it from reaching orbit, reported BCC.