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Britain’s aerospace industry pushes for new frontiers as Sir Richard Branson’s company Virgin Orbit makes final preparations for its Start Me Up mission
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The first space mission from Great Britain will start on Monday.
Virgin Orbit, Sir Richard Branson’s company, is finalizing preparations for its Start Me Up mission, which will see a modified jumbo jet take off from Newquay Airport in Cornwall with a space rocket under its wing.
Launch plans follow approval of the mission by the Civil Aviation Authority last month.
High-flying: Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl plane takes LauncherOne rocket with nine satellites
The launch window opens at 10:16 PM on Monday night, but there are backup dates later in January in case of delays.
Start Me Up, named after The Rolling Stones’ 1981 single, will involve Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl plane taking off from a runway with the LauncherOne rocket containing nine satellites.
Cosmic Girl will send the rocket flying some 30,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean before free-falling, after which LauncherOne will fire its booster engines to reach space.
“This launch marks the start of a new era in the UK space industry,” said Virgin Orbit chief Dan Hart.