Virgin Orbit successfully dropped a rocket from a jumbo jet and ignited it, but its launch failed due to an 'anomaly'

• Virgin Orbit's first rocket launch failed due to an unexplained problem after it had a "clean release" from the Cosmic Girl jumbo jet.
• The airplane and flight crew safely returned to the base in Mojave, California, after the launch attempt on Monday.
• SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared support with the company on Twitter, writing that the Falcon 1 took four attempts before orbiting around the Earth.

After postponing its long-awaited rocket launch by a day, Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket had a successful release from a jumbo jet.

However, an unidentified problem forced Richard Branson's orbital launch company to terminate the mission shortly after the jet, called Cosmic Girlrocket, dropped the rocket into the air.

Virgin said in a series of tweets that Cosmic Girl and its flight crew had safely returned to their base in Mojave, California. The company also said that an unspecified "anomaly" occurred shortly after the rocket's engines ignited.

"LauncherOne maintained stability after release, and we ignited our first stage engine, NewtonThree. An anomaly then occurred early in first stage flight," Virgin Orbit tweeted. "We'll learn more as our engineers analyze the mountain of data we collected today."

According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who closely follows spaceflight activity, the drop of the rocket occurred at a spot above the North Pacific Ocean. "First launches are tough," McDowell said in a tweet.

'Orbit is hard'

Elon Musk sent his condolences to Virgin for the failed launch attempt.

"Sorry to hear that. Orbit is hard. Took us four attempts with Falcon 1," the SpaceX CEO said in a tweet, referring to the aerospace company's first launch system that rocketed a payload into orbit around Earth.

"We appreciate that, Elon. We're excited about the data we were able to get today," the company responded on Twitter.

The launch was originally scheduled for Sunday, but Virgin Orbit postponed it to Monday morning out of an "abundance of caution" because a sensor had been "acting up," the company yesterday. Ahead of Monday's launch, Virgin Orbit said on social media that it felt "more ready than ever" to launch the rocket.

Despite the disappointing failure, Virgin Orbit noted its test flight wasn't entirely awash.

"In this first launch demo, we successfully completed all of our pre-launch procedures, captive carry flight out to the drop site, clean telemetry lock from multiple dishes, a smooth pass through the racetrack, terminal count, and a clean release from the aircraft," the company tweeted. "[O]ur goals today were to work through the process of conducting a launch, learn as much as we could, and achieve ignition. We hoped we could have done more, but we accomplished those key objectives today."

The company also indicated that it's ready to try again, sharing a photo of its next fully built rocket in a hangar.

—Virgin Orbit (@Virgin_Orbit) May 25, 2020

• Read more:
• Virgin Orbit will soon use its modified Boeing 747 to launch satellites into orbit using a rocket strapped to the wing — here's how it works
• Richard Branson and Virgin Group are cutting ties with the Saudi Government after the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi
• Elon Musk spent $1 billion developing SpaceX's reusable rockets — here's how fast he might recoup it all
• 'We are a go': SpaceX just cleared 2 huge hurdles toward its first rocket launch of NASA astronauts into space next week

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