British air accident investigators are to examine the failed attempt to send satellites into orbit from Cornwall as the teams behind the historic mission described tearful scenes when the rocket was lost but expressed a determination to try again as soon as possible.
The UK Space Agency (UKSA) said Virgin Orbit’s Start Me Up mission had been a partial success, showing that a rocket launch was possible from Britain – and claimed it had beaten Norway and Sweden to be the first country to fire satellites into space from European soil.
Both the agency and Spaceport Cornwall, the base for the multimillion-pound launch, said they would try again to send satellites into orbit within a year.
However, it was grim news for Virgin Orbit Holdings, with shares falling by a fifth in early trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange as its teams in California and Cornwall tried to pinpoint what went wrong and establish the location of the rocket debris and satellites.
It emerged on Tuesday that the rocket, propelled into space from a customised Boeing 747 that took off from the spaceport near Newquay on Monday night, reached a speed of 11,000 mph (17,700 km/h) but needed to attain 17,000 mph (27,400 km/h) to gain the correct altitude.
One possibility for the failure was that fairings which encased the rocket did not fall away as expected, and slowed it down.
Matt Archer, the UKSA’s commercial space director, said he accepted the mission had not achieved everything it had set out to do but it proved a launch could take place from Britain – and that the UK could claim to be the first European country to launch satellites. “We’ve launched,” he said. “We know that not everything was successful, but we got to space.”
Asked whether the fairings could have been the problem, he said: “What we know is that it [the rocket] didn’t fire for as long as it should have done. It wasn’t gaining the altitude it needed to. It could be a whole number of things, whether it’s just engine performance or something isn’t burning. It could be a fairing issue.”
Archer said the rocket ran for about one minute rather than three. He said the weather in Cornwall and above the Atlantic had not been a problem.
He explained that Virgin Orbit and the UKSA were trying to locate the debris of the rocket and satellites. “A lot of it will break up and be burned to the atmosphere. So whether any of it comes down, we don’t know, but given the trajectory goes over the poles, over bodies of water, I’m not expecting it to be an issue.”
Archer said there had been tears when the mission stalled and they had not opened the Cornish sparkling wine the team had put on ice. “There’ll be time to celebrate the successes and acknowledge all the hard work.”
A range of bodies will look at the incident, including the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, the Civil Aviation Authority, and possibly official US investigators.
Virgin Orbit, which launched the mission from Spaceport Cornwall, said it would also “tirelessly” investigate what had caused the failure.
In a statement, the company said the 747, Cosmic Girl, had successfully released the LauncherOne rocket, which carried the payload of military and civilian satellites, in the designated drop zone off the southern coast of Ireland.
It said: “The rocket then ignited its engines, quickly, going hypersonic and successfully reaching space. The flight continued through successful stage separation and ignition of the second stage. However, at some point during the firing of the rocket’s second-stage engine, and with the rocket travelling at a speed of more than 11,000mph, the system experienced an anomaly.”
The 747 safely returned to Spaceport Cornwall, near Newquay.
The mission’s failure is a blow for Spaceport Cornwall, which staged a festival around the launch attended by thousands of people.
Melissa Thorpe, the head of Spaceport Cornwall, said: “We inspired millions. Not just with our ambition but also with our fortitude.
“We’re feeling awful, to be honest – I’m not going to lie. There were tears, and it was very upsetting. It’s gutting but we’ve proven we’re a spaceport. We launched last night. We will go again. We’ve learned so much. I think you’ll see a few days of ‘What was that?’ and then this huge surge of energy to see how we can do it again, I hope this year.
Thorpe said some had doubted people would come to see the launch. “But we could have sold 10,000 tickets. We crashed Eventbrite. The biggest lesson is that people believe this is a big deal. People want to see it and be around it.”
There were contrasting reactions among the teams that lost satellites.
Emma Jones, the mission lead for the Dover Pathfinder satellite, designed to protect critical national infrastructure from cyber-hacking and jamming attacks, said it had been an “epic adventure”.
“It was a bit disappointing but we cracked open a bottle of champagne and the feeling was: ‘We’re going to do this again. It’s not over yet.’”
She said she would love their next satellite to be launched from the UK. “That’s something we’ll discuss with the various launch suppliers.”
Josh Western, the chief executive of the Cardiff company Space Forge, which had hoped to put the first Welsh-built satellite into orbit, admitted he cried when he heard the mission had failed, and reached for his wife and co-founder for comfort.
He said: “It didn’t succeed but we were still part of something incredible, historic. We’d launch from Cornwall again, 100%.”
His great-grandfather was stationed at an RAF base in Cornwall and Western had inscribed a copy of his signature in the lost satellite. “It’s one of the reasons we’d come back again,” he said. “I love the grit of the Cornish spirit.”
