UK Joins Space-Launch Club as Virgin Orbit Rocket Blasts Off
- Mission would add UK to ranks of satellite-launching nations
- Satellites to be deployed shortly after rocket’s launch
Cosmic Girl at Cornwall Airport Newquay on Jan. 9.
Photographer: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
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Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc. fired a rocket toward space from beneath the wing of a Boeing Co. 747 aircraft that took off from southwest England, marking a major milestone in the first-ever orbital launch from Britain or Western Europe.
The company’s LauncherOne rocket is tasked with deploying nine satellites for multiple customers, after being carried aloft by the re-purposed jumbo, Long Beach, California-based Virgin Orbit said in a statement late Monday UK time. The mission is still ongoing.