Portsmouth's space research continues as DSTL pick up the pieces from failed Virgin Orbit rocket

After taking off from Cornwall, the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne plane flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean where it jettisoned the rocket containing nine small satellites towards space. But an ‘anomaly’ with the systems meant it failed to orbit – although organisers are hailing the horizontal launch as a success.

Two of the satellites were owned by the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), based at the top of Portsdown Hill in Portsmouth.

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The satellites were going to support MoD science and technology ctivities both in orbit and on the ground through the development of ground systems focused at DSTL’s site near the city.

DSTL tweeted: ‘We are saddened at the loss of LauncherOne and share the disappointment of all who have worked so hard to get us this far.

‘We will work with our partners to enable continuation of our research programme.

‘This is [a] poignant reminder that working in the space domain is difficult.’

The unsuccessful orbit, however, saw the loss of the payload and the rocket, which was likely to burn up on re-entry to earth, but was projected to land over water.

Matt Archer, from the UK Space Agency, said the satellite load was insured and Virgin Orbit would recover its losses.

‘The rocket will probably break up, not all of it will burn up, but certainly that’s what they will be tracking at the moment and making sure that it is coming down safely,’ he said.

‘The trajectory that it was on shouldn’t be anywhere near land.’

Grant Shapps added that the government would work closely with Virgin Orbit to investigate the failure.

In a statement to MPs, the business secretary said: ‘Virgin Orbit attempted the first orbital launch from Spaceport Cornwall.

‘Unfortunately, the launch was unsuccessful.

‘We will work closely with Virgin Orbit as they investigate what caused the failure in the coming days and weeks. While a failed launch is disappointing, launching a spacecraft always carries significant risks. We remain committed to becoming the leading provider of commercial small satellite launch in Europe by 2030.’