Photos of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket being loaded on an aircraft bound for the UK have been released as anticipation builds for Britain's first orbital rocket launch. Royal Air Force troops from 99 Sqn were snapped loading the 30-ton 21.3 metre long rocket into an RAF C-17 Globemaster (ZZ174) in California where it was made.
British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit plan to launch the rocket sometime in the next month from Spaceport Cornwall, Newquay. It will be the first orbital rocket launch from British soil - and the first British-led rocket launch since 1979.
While not large enough to carry people like NASA's recent SpaceX launches, Virgin Orbit hopes to become the world's premier small satellite launch service provider. This will be the sixth launch by the California-based firm's LauncherOne model rocket, which is launched 'horizontally' off the bottom of a 747 aircraft named 'Cosmic Girl'.
The retired jumbo jet will take off with the rocket strapped to its belly, before detatching it at 35,000ft and getting out of the way of the much faster rocket at is enters orbit. Virgin Orbit has already carried out four successful launches from the Mojave Desert, California, since it's first failed launch attempt in May 2020.
Cosmic girl arrived at Newquay - the hub of Spaceport Cornwall - on Tuesday, October 4 and has since conducted a test flight over the south west. The launch is part of a collaboration project between UK-based Satellite Applications Catapult, Space Forge, the University of Exeter and the UK Ministry of Defence.
Omani space program ETCO and the US National Reconnaissance Office are also supporting the launch - which will deliver nine satellites into orbit, most built in the UK.
The satellites, including the first ever built in Wales, Cornwall, Oman and Poland will all be deployed in low earth orbit - around 2,000km (1242 miles) or less.
Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, told the BBC that the rocket is the culmination of eight years of 'really hard work'.
She said: "It's been eight years of just really hard work - the blood, sweat and tears of the team - to get to this point. And we've had so much happening just this past week.
"Bam, bam, bam - back-to-back exciting moments, from satellites and the carrier plane arriving, to the ground support equipment and now the rocket. It's hard to take it all in,"
LauncherOne is expected to launch some time after October 29, 2022.
