Space: UK's first satellite launch mission ends in failure

The first ever satellite mission launched from UK soil has ended in failure, after taking off from Newquay in Cornwall on Monday.

A jumbo jet, operated by the American Virgin Orbit company, carrying a rocket had been aiming to release it high over the Atlantic Ocean.

Things seems to be going well to begin with after the rocket ignited and set off correctly - but then the company discovered something had gone wrong.

It said that the rocket had suffered an "anomaly", with something unexpected happening meaning that the satellites it was carrying could not be released and were lost.

But the plane itself, called Cosmic Girl, was able to return safely to its base.

What could the problem have been?

The jumbo and its rocket left Newquay at just after 22:00 GMT

The Virgin Orbit system is relatively new, having only been in operation since 2020.

It had also suffered a failure on its very first test outing but this was followed up by four successful flights.

Now the company behind it are trying to figure out what went wrong, but think that there was an issue in one of the engines.

More than 2,000 people had bought tickets to watch the launch take place

Matt Archer, the launch programme director at the UK Space Agency, said the issue occurred in the upper section of the rocket.

"The second-stage engine had a technical anomaly and didn't reach the required orbit," he explained.

"That's now part of an investigation by Virgin Orbit and a number of government departments," he told BBC News.

What will happen next?

Currently the team are waiting to see if the rocket has fallen back to Earth.

Mr Archer said that if it did, it would have come down over unpopulated areas where no one lives so it wouldn't cause any danger.

They team also won't lose the money due to the satellites being lost, as they were insured so this means they can get the money back for any loss or damage that takes place.

But the mission's failure has been big disappointment for all those involved, including Virgin Orbit, the satellite owners and Spaceport Cornwall which organised the flight.

Dan Hart, the CEO of Virgin Orbit, said: "We will work tirelessly to understand the nature of the failure, make corrective actions, and return to orbit as soon as we have completed a full investigation and mission assurance process."

Melissa Thorpe, who heads the spaceport said "We put so much into this, everybody has, so it is absolutely gutting. But it's space and the cliché is it's hard. We know it's hard."

She added that the first part of the mission - the drop from the plane - had gone to plan and she was confident they would be able to embark on another mission in the "near future".

How significant would it be for the UK to launch its first satellite?

The UK has never put a satellite into orbit before, although it has successfully launched rockets - but even these were part of military exercises or for atmospheric research.

In these cases the spacecraft involved came straight back down to Earth again afterwards.

Although the UK is internationally renowned for making satellites of all sizes, the country's space industry has always had to send its products to foreign spaceports to get them into orbit.

Being able to launch its own satellites means that in the future teams should hopefully be able to do everything from designing spacecraft, through to completing the whole mission.

But we will need to wait a bit longer to see if this can actually become a reality in the near future - which may not be an quick or easy task.

After the launch UK science minister George Freeman tweeted: "We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard" - a reference to a famous quote given by former US President John F Kennedy in the 1960s.