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On Monday evening, the United Kingdom launched its first orbital space rocket, heralding the start of a new British high-tech industry.
A repurposed 747 jumbo jet will launch a rocket carrying nine satellites over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s part of the Virgin Orbit: Start Me Up mission and is named after a Rolling Stones song from 1981.
It took off around 10 p.m. GMT from Newquay Airport in Cornwall, heading west just below the coasts of Kerry and Cork in Ireland.
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The airport was chosen not only because of its pre-existing infrastructure but also because it has one of the longest regional airport runways in the country. It also has direct access to an Atlantic flight path and a low local population in the surrounding area.
When it reaches 35,000 feet, the jet will release the rocket, and its first-stage engine will begin to propel it out.
The launch used an old passenger airliner nicknamed Cosmic Girl from Virgin Orbit, an American company run by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, to carry a rocket called LauncherOne under its left wing.
In contrast to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Virgin Orbit is known for its horizontal launches. Because a fully fuelled rocket is too heavy, the plane has been stripped of its previous interior to save weight.
Two engineers will continue to sit at the top deck consoles, and the cockpit remains unchanged – only a massive red button to release the rocket has been added (dubbed LauncherOne).
If all goes well, the nine small satellites will be launched into an orbit more than 500 kilometres above the Earth, with a mix of civil and military applications ranging from ocean monitoring to navigation technology.
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Virgin Orbit is usually based in California and has previously conducted four successful rocket launches over the Pacific Ocean. Still, the team has now relocated to Cornwall specifically for this occasion.
Except for the “different weather,” Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said there would be little difference in how his team would work now that they were on the other side of the Atlantic.
The post The UK Launches Its First Ever Orbital Space Rocket appeared first on SurgeZirc UK.
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