Rocket delivered for first ever UK orbital launch

The rocket that will perform the first ever launch to orbit from the UK has been delivered to Spaceport Cornwall. Virgin Orbit’s Launcher One vehicle arrived at the site near Newquay in the southwest of England late on Friday night.

Launcher One was designed for launch from beneath the left wing of an airborne Boeing 747-400 that was repurposed by Virgin and named ‘Cosmic Girl’. This approach is a so-called ‘horizontal launch’ method which allows payloads to launch from a conventional airport with very few modifications. Newquay Cornwall Airport was selected to be such a spaceport.

The rocket itself is 21.3m high and weighs approximately 30t. The coming mission will take the payload into a Sun Synchronous Orbit, to which the rocket can carry a maximum load of 300kg. It was transported to Cornwall from California on a Royal Air Force C-17 Globemaster transport plane.

According to BBC News, the mission payload will comprise nine satellites including ForgeStar-0, the first ever Welsh satellite. It was built by Space Forge of Cardiff and will demonstrate technologies that future satellites will use to make various advanced materials in space.

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