London CNN —
Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747 jet – dubbed “Cosmic Girl” – took off Monday from the English town of Newquay, Cornwall, 245 miles west of London, in a first launch for the country from British soil.
The modified Boeing 747 jet will fly to about 35,000 feet before launching a missile strapped under its wing.
The rocket will fly between 310 and 745 miles (499 and 1199 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface and then launch nine satellites into low Earth orbit.
The launch marks Virgin Orbit – a subsidiary of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group – the first commercial satellite from Western Europe and Virgin Orbit’s first launch outside the United States.
Since January 2021, the American company has conducted four successful launches from the Mojave Desert in California.
Virgin Orbit’s “Cosmic Girl” is expected to return to base Monday between 7 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET.
Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart described the UK mission as a “historic undertaking”.
“This launch represents the beginning of a new era in the UK space industry and new partnerships between industry, government and allies,” he said in a statement released on Friday.
The satellites are owned by seven customers, including private companies and government agencies. They are used to prevent illegal trade, smuggling and terrorism, among other things, the company said in Friday’s press release, as well as to reduce the environmental impact of production.
The mission, named “Start Me Up” after the 1981 Rolling Stones song, is a joint venture between Virgin Orbit, the UK Space Agency, the local government of Cornwall and the UK Royal Air Force.
The launch marks a major milestone in the UK’s growing commercial satellite sector.
The country has been working on commercial spaceports for several years to capture a larger share of the fast-growing global space market, which Morgan Stanley estimates could be worth over $1 trillion by 2040.
The country’s £16.5 billion ($20 billion) space industry directly supported about 47,000 jobs between 2019 and 2020, according to the latest government figures available.
Ian Annett, deputy chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said on Friday that the launch signaled a “new era” for the UK space industry [it] firmly on the map as Europe’s leading target for small commercial satellite launches.”
“The development of new space launch capabilities is already generating growth, catalysing investment and creating jobs in Cornwall and other communities across the UK,” he added.
— Hanna Ziady contributed to the coverage.