First-ever orbital satellite launch from British soil will be delayed

Virgin Orbit's plan to launch a rocket into space from the UK has been delayed. All eyes were on the historic flight, slated for December 14, which would have marked the first time orbital satellites have been launched from British soil. Virgin Orbit was to send nine satellites aboard its LauncherOne rocket – carried by a …

[DS999]

Why are they doing this?

Launching from such a high latitude increases the fuel required to establish orbit. Where's Britain's empire when you need it, there were plenty of places near the equator they could have built a spaceport.

[smudge]

Re: Why are they doing this?

Can't find any details of the orbits of the 7 satellites that they are going to launch, so I will just make the observation that they don't have to be equatorial orbits.

I do know that satellites to be launched from Sutherland and/or Shetland - several hundred miles further north - are destined for polar orbits, or other non-equatorial orbits

[werdsmith]

Re: Why are they doing this?

North Scotland launches need to be very high inclination or retrograde, because Scandinavia.

Near equator prograde launches get natural help from earth rotation.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Why are they doing this?

>Launching from such a high latitude increases the fuel required to establish orbit.

Only for equatorial orbits - mostly GSO

The main limitation for the typical polar or swarm orbits for the small LEO payloads this can carry is that you don't want anyone living down range.

Being able to get away from potential downrange lawsuits is one of the alleged benefits of air launches.

[ChoHag]

Re: Why are they doing this?

Beardy has a bunch of 747s he needs to, uh, use.

[graeme leggett]

Re: Why are they doing this?

Beardy can tap the UK government to offset his costs while displaying the patriotism to be expected of someone who lives on a Caribbean island?

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Why are they doing this?

Where's Britain's empire when you need it, there were plenty of places near the equator they could have built a spaceport.

There still are. Ascension Island is only 8 degrees South (and perfectly named for this, as well)

[DS999]

Re: Why are they doing this?

But named even better for a space elevator!

[Paul Crawford]

Basically Virgin are doing the same as the Pegasus launcher from the 1990s but using a civilian 747 instead of military B52:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_Pegasus

[graeme leggett]

Pegasus has mostly been launched from a Lockheed Tristar

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

And hasn't been massively successful - for a variety of technical and business/political reasons

[EBG]

'kinell

The spokesperson has swallowed 10 copies of the total bullshit manual. They may need medical help. Unclear how El Reg thinks they were "explaining" anything. Other than "it's delayed", what did we learn from that ?

[ChoHag]

Translator Service

Mangler: we have determined that it is prudent to retarget launch for the coming weeks to allow ourselves and our stakeholders time to pave the way for full mission success.

Engineer: we're not ready yet.

Why?

Mangler: With licenses still outstanding for the launch itself and for the satellites within the payload, additional technical work needed to establish system health and readiness, and a very limited available launch window of only two days

Engineer: red tape.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Translator Service

Except, of course, as per the article, the purveyors of Red Tape have said "Uh, wot? Naa mate, the licences are all sorted, no problems at our end."

[david 12]

Re: Translator Service

Well they would, wouldn't they.

I don't know about this case, but perfectly legal ordinary licenses sometimes take a very long time to achieve even when there are 'no problems at our end'. Look at how long it takes to get a license to practice medicine: you're looking 6-10 years.

Depending on how you look at it, aircraft certification is either embedded in a mass of unnecessary red tape, or a mass of necessary red tape. Either way "no problems at our end" doesn't mean "sorted mate".

[anothercynic]

Re: Translator Service

That's not the only red tape, you know...

[Empire of the Pussycat]

Plane taking off from British soil will be delayed

Seems more accurate.

[Howard Sway]

Re: Plane taking off from British soil will be delayed

It's Virgin, those legendarily reliable train operators.

"We apologise to all customers awaiting the departure of our cancelled 14.22 service to space, but due to technical problems passengers should now proceed to the front of the airport where thy can depart using our replacement biplane service".

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Plane taking off from British soil will be delayed

I quite fancy the idea of a replacement airship service.

[The Axe]

13 months

The CAA had the license application 13 months ago. If there was technical issue why did they wait till just before the launch to raise them?

[Arthur the cat]

Virgin Orbit's plan to launch a rocket into space from the UK has been delayed.

Colour me surprised.

[nijam]

> ...technical issues that will need to be resolved before launch ... in no way relate to the timing of when a license will be issued by the Civil Aviation Authority

When you think it through, doesn't that completely contradict CVA'a claim that they are not the reason for the delayed licence?