Virgin Orbit Satellite Mission Fails, Sending Shares Down

The rocket’s payload consisted of nine small satellites including for U.S., U.K. and Omani government agencies, and companies including U.K.-based Horizon Technologies, Poland’s SatRevolution and Welsh space startup Space Forge. The satellites weren’t recoverable, the U.K. Space Agency said.

The failure was also a blow to the U.K., which has tried to boost its presence in the commercial-space industry. The Cornwall, England-based launch would have marked the first of a satellite into orbit from U.K. soil, and indeed from anywhere in Western Europe. Britain is building a number of spaceports and launchpads across the country, including in the southwest where Monday’s mission originated.

The launch, named for the Rolling Stones hit song, “Start Me Up,” was the first international mission for Virgin Orbit as it moves to prove that its unconventional launch strategy—using a repurposed

Boeing Co.

747 to send satellites into orbit—can be operated from across the globe.

The mission was supposed to show that its launcher can operate from any airport in the world with a runway long enough to handle a Boeing 747. The launch method distinguishes it from most rivals, who use traditional spaceports that support vertical launches, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. 
The size of the global launch market amounted to roughly $8 billion in 2022, according to a September estimate from

Deutsche Bank

analysts, who project growth to $35 billion by 2030. Virgin Orbit is the sister company of Virgin Galactic, a space-tourism venture also founded by Mr. Branson.

The modified 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off at 10 p.m. local time carrying Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket under its left wing, which was separated from the aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean off the southwestern coast of Ireland.

The launcher reached space a little over an hour after takeoff, but shortly before midnight the company said on Twitter that the attempt was unsuccessful. With the rocket traveling at faster than 11,000 miles an hour, the company said an anomaly occurred “at some point during the firing of the rocket’s second stage engine” leading it to prematurely scrap the mission.

“The first-time nature of this mission added layers of complexity that our team professionally managed through, however, in the end, a technical failure appears to have prevented us from delivering the final orbit,” Virgin Orbit Chief Executive

Dan Hart

said in a statement.

Virgin Orbit’s first attempt at sending a satellite into orbit in 2020 also failed, but it has since completed four successful missions.
 
“We are mindful that we failed to provide our customers the launch service they deserve,” Mr. Hart said, adding that Virgin Orbit plans to return to orbit as soon as a full investigation into the failure has been concluded.

Write to Benjamin Katz at [email protected]

The rocket’s payload consisted of nine small satellites including for U.S., U.K. and Omani government agencies, and companies including U.K.-based Horizon Technologies, Poland’s SatRevolution and Welsh space startup Space Forge. The satellites weren’t recoverable, the U.K. Space Agency said.

The failure was also a blow to the U.K., which has tried to boost its presence in the commercial-space industry. The Cornwall, England-based launch would have marked the first of a satellite into orbit from U.K. soil, and indeed from anywhere in Western Europe. Britain is building a number of spaceports and launchpads across the country, including in the southwest where Monday’s mission originated.

The launch, named for the Rolling Stones hit song, “Start Me Up,” was the first international mission for Virgin Orbit as it moves to prove that its unconventional launch strategy—using a repurposed

Boeing Co.

747 to send satellites into orbit—can be operated from across the globe.

The mission was supposed to show that its launcher can operate from any airport in the world with a runway long enough to handle a Boeing 747. The launch method distinguishes it from most rivals, who use traditional spaceports that support vertical launches, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. 
The size of the global launch market amounted to roughly $8 billion in 2022, according to a September estimate from

Deutsche Bank

analysts, who project growth to $35 billion by 2030. Virgin Orbit is the sister company of Virgin Galactic, a space-tourism venture also founded by Mr. Branson.

The modified 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off at 10 p.m. local time carrying Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket under its left wing, which was separated from the aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean off the southwestern coast of Ireland.

The launcher reached space a little over an hour after takeoff, but shortly before midnight the company said on Twitter that the attempt was unsuccessful. With the rocket traveling at faster than 11,000 miles an hour, the company said an anomaly occurred “at some point during the firing of the rocket’s second stage engine” leading it to prematurely scrap the mission.

“The first-time nature of this mission added layers of complexity that our team professionally managed through, however, in the end, a technical failure appears to have prevented us from delivering the final orbit,” Virgin Orbit Chief Executive

Dan Hart

said in a statement.

Virgin Orbit’s first attempt at sending a satellite into orbit in 2020 also failed, but it has since completed four successful missions.
 
“We are mindful that we failed to provide our customers the launch service they deserve,” Mr. Hart said, adding that Virgin Orbit plans to return to orbit as soon as a full investigation into the failure has been concluded.

Write to Benjamin Katz at [email protected]