Virgin Orbit Rocket Arrives For First Space Launch From UK

The rocket that will conduct the first ever orbital mission from UK soil has been delivered to its spaceport.

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne vehicle came into Newquay, Cornwall, late on Friday on a military plane from California where it was made.

The rocket will now be prepared for its flight to space, which is likely to occur sometime next month.

Nine individual satellites, most built in the UK, will take the ride a few hundred kilometres above the Earth.

Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, was on hand to see the rocket being unloaded and taken into Newquay’s integration facility.

“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,” she told newsmen.