Virgin Orbit doesn’t
As we find out more, we're removing our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We'll share more info when we can.has contacted the company, the UK Space Agency, and Spaceport Cornwall to request further information.Speculation about the cause of the incident centres on “Newton Four”, the second stage engine that LauncherOne fires multiple times to reach space, then position into desired orbits.
Virgin Orbit reported the anomaly after Newton Four had fired, suggesting it either didn’t succeed in getting the rocket into the right spot or may not have re-ignited. Those who watched the launch live-feed have zeroed in on the action at the 2:01:00 mark of the stream, when some odd readings were received from the rocket.Virgin Orbit explained some of the oddities in its live feed as artefacts of the difficulties involved when communicating with a rocket moving at 20,000 km/h, and the craft passing beyond the view of ground stations, and mentioned that some telemetry was therefore stored and forwarded to mission control.
But the company had no explanation when the graphic detailing the flight’s progress was replaced by a page explaining that the Chrome browser had run out of memory. Cosmic Girl made its safely back to Earth and appears to be intact and ready for future launches. Which will probably be quite some time in the future, once Virgin Orbit figures out the cause of the anomaly that disrupted this mission. ®
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