After announcing that its rocket reached orbit on a historic first mission from the United Kingdom late Monday, Virgin Orbit changed course and said there
to open space for everyone. 2,000 people came to watch, ready to see what they thought would be a moment of history. but it wasn t to be. the rocket called launcherone fired its engines after it was released from the plane. but then this. it appears that launcherone has suffered an anomaly which will prevent us from making orbit for this mission. a second engine burn had failed. the mission was over. just absolutely devastated. you know, we put our heart and soul into this, and it s such a personal journey for me as well. and my family were here. so, yeah, it was pretty, pretty rough. but i feel ok, i feel ok. and i think it willjust be a few days ofjust kind of letting it sink in a little bit. nine small satellites were on board the rocket, including this one from a cardiff based start up called space forge. all were lost. as much as we didn t get to orbit, the project for us hasn t been a waste. we ve learnt a great deal. not only were we able to do that, but it gave the team a real
Virgin Orbit says its LauncherOne rocket "experienced an anomaly" just before it could deliver its payload. The problem arose shortly after a maneuver called the "barbecue roll."