Virgin Orbit blames launch failure on upper stage anomaly

Virgin Orbit says its first LauncherOne mission from the United Kingdom failed to reach orbit Jan. 9 when an anomaly caused a premature shutdown of the rocket’s upper stage. In a Jan. 12 statement, Virgin Orbit provided a few new details about the failed “Start Me Up” mission from England’s Spaceport Cornwall, which attempted to place nine satellites into orbit. The failure was the first for LauncherOne since an inaugural demonstration mission in 2020. More

(Source: SpaceNews - Jan 13)