Virgin Orbit Delays First UK Launch

Virgin Orbit s gearing up for the first ever launch from the United Kingdom, however they are facing regulatory and technical challenges which are impacting the schedule.

In the United Kingdom, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the agency responsible for issuing launch licences from the UK. With this being not only Virgin Orbit's first UK launch but the first ever orbital launch from UK airspace the process is taking longer than was hoped. However, despite this, the CAA are still well within their 9-10 month window for issuing a licence from the date the request was submitted.

The Virgin Orbit and Spaceport Cornwall teams continue to prepare for the milestone launch, a new date will be determined as soon as possible.

"With licenses still outstanding for the launch itself and for the satellites within the payload, additional technical work needed to establish system health and readiness, and a very limited available launch window of only two days, we have determined that it is prudent to retarget launch for the coming weeks to allow ourselves and our stakeholders time to pave the way for full mission success.", Virgin Orbit CEO, Dan Hart, "At this time, all our customer spacecraft have been encapsulated into our payload assembly and into our LauncherOne rocket, which is now mated to our carrier aircraft on the Echo Apron at Spaceport Cornwall. Through hard work and close coordination with all our launch partners, a commercial airport has been transformed into western Europe's first orbital spaceport."