A rocket has taken off into space in the first ever orbital space mission to launch from UK soil. Several satellites were blasted into space from Cornwall Airport near Newquay as part of the Start Me Up mission on Monday night (January 9).
Named in tribute to The Rolling Stones’ 1981 hit, the mission involves a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket. The 747, dubbed Cosmic Girl, took off horizontally from the new facility while carrying the rocket.
As the Start Me Up mission lifted off the runway at around 10pm, hundreds of people watching the launch cheered and Start Me Up was blasted out on loudspeakers.
Around an hour into the flight the rocket was set to be released at 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland before the plane is to return to the spaceport. It is then that the rocket will ignite its engine and take multiple small satellites, with a variety of civil and defence applications, into orbit. They will be the first satellites launched into space from Europe.
In the past, satellites produced in the UK have needed to be sent to foreign spaceports to make their journey into space.
Speaking on Sunday, Ian Annett, deputy chief executive at the UK Space Agency, described his 'immense excitement', saying: “Who would not be excited by the fact this is the first time that it has been done in Europe? That’s because it’s hard,” he said.
“There is a point where the training takes over and you fall into that rhythm of the teams knowing what they need to do. They know when they need to make the decisions they need to make.
“I would say the real achievements here are not the successes that you can necessarily see but all of the challenges that collectively as a team people have overcome. The culmination of all of that is putting these exciting missions into space. It’s the things at the pointy end of the rocket that really matter.”
It was originally hoped the launch could take place before Christmas but owing to technical and regulatory issues it had to be pushed into 2023.
Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said: “We knew this was not going to be a piece of cake when we took up on the opportunity. We worked very closely with the UK Space Agency, the Civil Aviation Authority and Spaceport Cornwall, as well as the international airspace community.
“I think we have learned a lot doing that. I think, like any first, the first time you do it is difficult, the second time you already know and can anticipate. The short answer is we are excited to be here, and we’re excited about the future and coming back as soon as later this year to launch again.”
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