--- title: Virgin Orbit’s rocket to nowhere - The Hustle description: A rocket went down, but not all was lost. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1599451141-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-11T013116.794Z.webp --- # Virgin Orbit’s rocket to nowhere ![Jacob Cohen](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png?width=48&height=48&name=IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png) [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen) [Jacob Cohen Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/ImJacobCohen) Published: January 11, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 There are thousands of satellites orbiting above Earth. But it’s not always easy getting them up there. ![Virgin Orbit’s rocket to nowhere](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1599451141-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-11T013116.794Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1599451141-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-11T013116.794Z.webp) During a Monday night mission in Great Britain, a Virgin Orbit rocket experienced an anomaly while traveling [11k+](https://virginorbit.com/the-latest/historic-uk-mission-reaches-space-falls-short-of-orbit/) mph, and never reached its final orbit. The satellites it carried burned up on reentry, [according to *The New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/business/uk-satellite-virgin-orbit.html). The failure spoiled the United Kingdom’s first attempted satellite launch and led to Virgin Orbit’s stock dropping 14% yesterday. #### **What was lost?** Nine satellites, whose owners paid [$10m-$12m](https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britains-satellite-hopes-undimmed-by-mission-failure-2023-01-10/) each for a spot — and are reportedly insured. Among them: - Belgian company RHEA Group, which lost a satellite meant to be tested as a backup for GPS navigation systems. - AAC Clyde Space, a Scottish company, which lost a cubesat made to track illegal maritime activities. Founded by Richard Branson, Virgin Orbit has previously completed four successful satellite launches out of the Mojave Desert in California, which is a helluva lot less damp and windy than Britain. Branson’s mission success rate with Virgin Orbit and space tourism company Virgin Galactic has been [above 90%](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11619301/Richard-Bransons-history-failed-rocket-launches-revealed.html), per the *Daily Mail*, but it lags fellow space-obsessed billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, as well as NASA. #### **But not all was lost** The mission helped lay the groundwork for technical and regulatory advancements in Britain’s space industry. Britain has now spent $24m equipping an airport in Cornwall, England, for satellite launches and plans to launch in Scotland. “We have shown the UK is capable of launching into orbit,” Matt Archer, the UK Space Agency’s director of commercial spaceflight, [noted](https://twitter.com/spacegovuk/status/1612762271943368709). **Big picture:** Deutsche Bank [valued](https://www.wsj.com/articles/virgin-orbit-fails-to-lift-satellite-load-into-orbit-from-europe-11673344566?mod=livecoverage_web) the global launch market at ~$8B in 2022, and projects it will reach $35B by 2030. Topics: [Science And Research](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/science-and-research) [Space](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/space) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![There’s just so much space junk](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/282855829-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-Space-Junk_20231008235114.webp) ### There’s just so much space junk - ![Cooling the planet is as easy as putting an umbrella on an asteroid and blocking out the sun](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/474334103-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-umbrella_20230806234611.webp) ### Cooling the planet is as easy as putting an umbrella on an asteroid and blocking out the sun - ![The push to make space launches ‘dumber’](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/467812455-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-space_20230711234840.webp) ### The push to make space launches ‘dumber’ - ![Life on (not actually) Mars](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1923740441-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-mars_20230705230940.webp) ### Life on (not actually) Mars - ![Indiana Jones inched archaeology forward, but tech is bringing the big leaps](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/43427626-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-indy_20230628220428.webp) ### Indiana Jones inched archaeology forward, but tech is bringing the big leaps - ![The legacy of this late Nobel-winning chemist deserves a plug](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/123054790-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-goodenough_20230626225558.webp) ### The legacy of this late Nobel-winning chemist deserves a plug - ![How to barbecue in outer space](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/757369057-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2019202023spacelab.webp) ### How to barbecue in outer space - ![Is egg freezing ready for a high-tech upgrade?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1187929335-19-News-Brief_2023-04-17T235314.313Z.webp) ### Is egg freezing ready for a high-tech upgrade? - ![Earth’s deepest problems are being confronted on the surface](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1414776598-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMarch2029202023new_paint.webp) ### Earth’s deepest problems are being confronted on the surface - ![A woman is suing Jack Daniel’s over whiskey fungus](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/996124604-png-2.webp) ### A woman is suing Jack Daniel’s over whiskey fungus Pop up for Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t. JOIN FREE ### 100% Free CRM Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jacob Cohen", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/jacob-cohen" }, "datePublished" : "2023-01-11T09:38:25.000Z", "headline" : "Virgin Orbit’s rocket to nowhere", "image" : [ "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1599451141-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-11T013116.794Z.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/01112023-virgin-orbit-rocket", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jacob Cohen", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:37:32+0000", "datePublished" : "2023-01-11T09:38:25+0000", "headline" : "Virgin Orbit’s rocket to nowhere", "image" : [ "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1599451141-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-11T013116.794Z.webp" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```