Britain’s attempt to become the first European country to launch a satellite into space ends as the launch fails

Britain’s effort to become the first European nation to launch a satellite into space was unsuccessful on Tuesday after Virgin Orbit reported a ‘anomaly’ in its rocket that prevented it from reaching orbit. ‘We seem to have a problem that has kept us from getting into orbit. We are considering the data,’ said Virgin Orbit.

For the ‘horizontal launch’ mission, which left from the beach town of Newquay in southwest England, Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket was carried beneath the wing of a customised Boeing 747 called ‘Cosmic Girl.’ According to Reuters, the rocket was afterwards launched over the Atlantic Ocean.

The aircraft engineering company made the ‘anomaly’ public, 10 minutes before midnight. Less than an hour after the rocket was launched from Cosmic Girl, a 747 jumbo plane modified to unleash LauncherOne at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean.

This comes after the failure of a Vega-C rocket mission, which was built in Italy, in late December following lift-off from French Guiana.