The space business is another legit dollar-pumping venture that creates an opportunity for private
and government-owned companies to make generational money of over a million dollars per rocket
launch, which is why most companies that deem themselves capable of breaking through earth’s
gravitational force and get into orbit are strategizing and working on several denominations
of rockets to reach orbit and even land on the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX has no doubt proven to the world and NASA that they have the required resources
to climb the skies and reach the lower earth orbit.
But the challenges involved in getting a vehicle or rocket to lift off from Earth, overcome
the G-force, and get into orbit are more than anyone can imagine.
Though grace seems to shine more on SpaceX as the company has successfully sent satellites
into orbit, that alone has elevated NASA’s spirit to believe that one day, SpaceX will
take their astronauts to the moon again.
However, Virgin Orbit wanted to try their luck in the space game as it seems that while
they folded their hands and watched SpaceX win the skies, everything was easy and rosy,
but when they tried it out themselves, they unluckily tasted a little of what Elon and
SpaceX faced in their early days, normally known as rocket failure.
Let's talk more about how Virgin Orbit has been struck by unexpected failures as they
tried to land satellites in space using a Boeing aircraft.
While SpaceX launches rockets using vertical launch and landing, Virgin Orbit uses horizontal
launch and landing.
Virgin Orbit wanted to send some communication systems into space, but their strategies literally
failed.
The Virgin Orbit satellite is the first launch from the U.K., which would have been a step
forward for the British land to have their own private rocket company, in which, of course,
tax payers' money will be invested for the success of the company, just as the U.S. government
is doing to NASA.
That's if the launch was successful, but unfortunately, it dealt a harsh blow to the country’s emerging
space program.
This historic first orbital launch attempt from the U.K. was a high-profile opportunity
to show investors what the company is capable of and to impress British officials who were
present to see the rocket-carrying airplane take off from a Spaceport in southwestern
England.
But the rocket failure showed an aura of gross incompetence by Virgin Orbit compared to what
SpaceX has proven with the use of cutting-edge technology for possibilities of reducing launch
cost and at the same time implementing reusability in rocket launches.
Yet Virgin Orbit could launch rockets at a higher cost, and even at that, their rocket
is not optimized to be reused over and over again without failure.
British officials who were eagerly waiting to be convinced by a successful launch so
that they could help the company become financially stable were likely unimpressed, just as other
customers, including the governments of the United Kingdom and other private investors,
were.
Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said in a post-launch statement that "its first launch attempt from
the UK was a load of tosh, and we'll work tirelessly to understand the nature of the
failure, make corrective actions, and return to orbit as soon as we've completed a full
investigation."
Britain's space program was full of hope, and a crowd of people who would have bought
flight tickets in the future watched as a modified Boeing 747 carrying a rocket with
nine satellites took off from an airport in Cornwall, southwest England, and eventually
failed.
Things went wrong just before midnight.
The rocket was able to get away from the plane and fire its first engine.
But at more than 11,000 miles per hour, the rocket "experienced an anomaly that ended
the mission early."
A spokeswoman for Virgin Orbit said the company hadn't finished analyzing the flight data
yet, but it looked like the rocket never reached orbit and the second stage, which carried
the satellites, mostly burned up on re-entry off the west coast of Africa.
and means wasted resources for Virgin Orbit and the British government at large.
Matt Archer, who is in charge of commercial spaceflight at the UK Space Agency, said that
British regulators were looking into the incident with Virgin Orbit to find out "what happened,
what caused the problem, and how they can fix it—so that the failures will not be
repeated next time."
The 747 and its crew made it back safely, but the nine satellites that were on the rocket
were destroyed.
If these high-tech devices were destroyed, the people who made them and the people who
paid for them could have lost years of work and even millions of dollars.
Normally, failures in space flights are not strange, and at first attempt, this one doesn't
look like it will stop Britain from trying to become a country that can both make and
launch satellites.
Even though the launch didn't go as planned, British officials who sponsored the flight
said it was still a big step forward.
It took a long time to build the right infrastructure and set up the right rules so that Britain
could be ready for the launch and eventually benefit from having a space port.
In recent years, the British government has become more interested in space, especially
under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who left office last year.
Britain is not playing a new game in the satellite industry.
They've been doing it for a long time.
They even have other companies that make small satellites, one of which is "cubesats," which
use more communication networks.
But why are countries jus realizing that they need to run their own space programs?
First, think about the war in Ukraine, which has become strong enough to split up powerful
countries and organize a new group of allies.
This same war has also made it more important to launch from one's own country.
And most importantly, Britain and other countries can no longer rely on paying for rides on
Russian rockets, as they used to.
Sir Richard Branson started Virgin Orbit in 2011 as a spin-off of his Virgin Galactic
space business.
He wanted to fully use the White Knight aircraft, but in the end, the company decided to use
its own plane, a modified Boeing 747-400 called "Cosmic Girl," to drop and launch small rockets.
Since Virgin Orbit didn't make enough money on its own, it was funded for most of the
past decade by the Virgin Group, which is a multibillion-dollar company.
Investment company independent estimates say that during that time, Virgin Orbits spent
up to a billion dollars developing and testing its Launcher 1 rocket and air launch system.
With such high development costs and a low cadence for a rocket that sells for $12 million
per launch, how can Virgin Orbit stay in business?
It's noted that SpaceX launched more orbital-class, reusable, uncrewed and crewed rockets and
spacecraft last year than most countries' government-funded space programs, let alone
other private space companies.
Rocket Lab was the only company that came close to matching SpaceX's launch record last
year.
This year seems to be more of the same, as SpaceX is about to launch the prototype of
the most powerful rocket ever built—the starship—and may be able to recover the
most powerful booster ever sent into space.
In this race, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit, and Blue Origin aren't even close enough to
SpaceX to be breathing in their dust.
They just got started, but SpaceX has already passed them about 15–20 times.
Even so, we still want all these space companies to do well.
With an industry that is still so young, it's not like the pie is going to get smaller.
And for Virgin Orbit, the idea of a "horizontal launch" feature, which might be a throwback
to "The Thunderbirds" and come from the good old U.K., is pretty cool, and horizontal launch
will stand out from what other space companies are doing.
It's also high time Sir Richard Branson considers putting away his marketing and snap-dazzle,
getting off his island and down on the floor, and thinking about whether he wants his company
to win in the space race.
He could as well pay a visit to Elon Musk and ask him about his ideas in the rocket
industry that are working for him, and Branson could also hire a few SpaceX engineers in
charge of starship production to assist in his company so that his next launches will
see success.
All the same, it's a great time here in the U.S. to be witnessing these space companies
striving to dominate orbit.
But on the other side of the coin, billionaire Branson should put away his flashy island
and flashy yacht and just ask for some help.
Do you think Branson will one day succeed in the space game?
In the other hand, Elon Musk is trying his best by confirming that SpaceX is ready to
send Starship super heavy to orbit after huge upgrades, just click on the video to know
everything about this.