Virgin Orbit space mission fails as UK's first orbital rocket launch ends in disaster

Britain's first-ever orbital space mission failed to reach orbit due to 'anomaly', says Virgin Orbit just hours after cheering crowds celebrated its historic launch

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Start Me Up: Virgin Orbit rocket lifts off from Cornwall

Devastated space fans returned home this morning after discovering that the UK's first orbital space launch had failed.

Thousands of people had gathered at Newquay Airport on Monday night to cheer the Virgin Orbit Boeing 747 dubbed "Cosmic Girl" into the night sky.

Everything seemed to be going well after the rocket successfully detached from the plane at 11:10 a.m. over the Irish Sea and began its journey into space.

Virgin Orbit even announced that the rocket, known as LauncherOne, had successfully launched into orbit only to return to that runway shortly thereafter.

In a tweet that shocked fans gathered on the podium, Virgin Orbit said: "As we learn more, we are deleting our previous tweet about reaching orbit. We will share more information as soon as we can."

The crew aboard the Boeing 747 Virgin Orbit, which carried the rocket from Spaceport Cornwall, have been confirmed to have returned safely.

Matt Archer of the British Space Agency confirmed that there was an "anomaly" with the combustion of the second stage of the Launcher One rocket.

Crowds gathered at Spaceport Cornwall returned home with mixed emotions after learning that the rocket had failed to reach orbit (

Picture:

Getty Images)

"In effect, the rocket did not reach the required altitude to maintain orbit or deploy the satellites and therefore the mission failed," he told reporters at Spaceport Cornwall.

"Over the next few days there will be an investigation involving the government and various agencies, including Virgin Orbit, to ensure that we understand what caused this technical failure and again we will determine what 'need to do next.

"We don't know what caused the anomaly and data will be ongoing from now on, but we successfully launched.

"We have decided to do this and to create the conditions for horizontal launches at Spaceport Cornwall. So a lot of positive things have been achieved and although it is obviously disappointing not to reach orbit, we will continue to insist.

Mr. Archer also explained some of the r...