Virgin Orbit

Space launch company Virgin Orbit has been grounded for good after a US bankruptcy court broke it up and sold off its assets to bidders. The demise of the ambitious venture comes after a failed attempt to conduct its first mission in January.

The mystery of why the first orbital mission launched from the UK fell into the sea on January 9 had some light shed on it today as Virgin Orbital announced that telemetry indicated that the second stage engine shut down prematurely.

Britain's attempt to launch its first orbital rocket in over half a century and the first from UK soil failed today as the second stage of the mission's Virgin Orbit rocket malfunctioned due to an undisclosed problem.

Virgin Orbit has ticked off another milestone in its fledgling launch business, successfully carrying out its first night-time mission over the weekend and deploying satellites into low-Earth orbit for the US Space Force.

Virgin Orbit has followed on from its first trip to space back in January, with a mission that now marks the beginning of its commercial satellite launch service after successfully carrying seven CubeSats into orbit on Wednesday.

It was the second time's a charm as Virgin Orbit's airdropped LauncherOne rocket put 10 NASA payloads into orbit on the second attempt in less than eight months, sending 10 NASA CubeSat payloads into low-Earth orbit under the Launch Services Program.

Virgin Orbit is preparing its pilots, Cosmic Girl mothership and LauncherOne rocket for a second attempt at orbital flight, today announcing that its Launch Demo 2 mission will take place a week before Christmas.

Virgin Orbit has come up short on its first attempt to reach orbit today after the mission was terminated soon after ignition of its LauncherOne rocket, with the team now working through the data and gearing up for its next attempt.

Virgin Orbit continues to edge closer to its objective of firing satellites into space form an airborne 747, this time completing an end-to-end launch rehearsal designed to put all of its systems through their paces.

Virgin Orbit has revealed plans for the first commercial satellite mission to Mars, where a new breed of tiny probes could help study the Red Planet.

Virgin Orbit is developing a launch system to carry satellites into space using a rocket mounted to the wing of a modified 747. The team has today ticked off what it calls a significant milestone, carrying said rocket into the air and releasing it over the Californian desert for the first time.

Virgin Orbit's Cosmic Girl took to the skies over Southern California on November 18, 2018 carrying a 70-ft-long (21-m) rocket for the first time. The specially modified 747-400 aircraft with the LauncherOne booster under its port wing took off from Victorville, California on an 80-min test flight.