A month ago there was disappointment as Virgin Orbit’s first attempt at a space launch from the United Kingdom using its converted Boeing 747 airliner platform failed to achieve orbit. Now with the benefit of a lot of telemetry analysis the company have released their findings, which conclude that a fuel filter within the second stage became dislodged. The resulting fuel starvation was enough to cause the engine to receive insufficient cooling and overheat, bringing the mission to a premature end.
As we said at the time, the interesting part of the launch, midair from the 747, appears to have gone flawlessly. Space exploration is hard, and we are confident that they’ll fix any fuel filter mounting issues on future launches and be placing payloads in orbit for their customers soon afterwards. The whole program has seen significant news coverage in the UK where the craft has its base, and those of us in that environ will no doubt see it portrayed locally as a matter of national pride. The truth however will be that it flies on the talents of engineers from all corners of the world. We’ll be watching out next time, and look forward to a successful mission.
Header: Österreichisches Weltraum Forum, CC BY-SA 4.0.
“conclude that a fuel filter within the second stage became dislodged.” …
It is actually quite amazing that we can ‘reliably’ put anything in orbit. Just one failed part of flight hardware can doom an attempt. And there are ‘lots’ of parts in a orbital class rocket! They’ll get it right … given enough time and money.
So…2nd stage and the capsule were not recovered?
What capsule?
Also there isn’t and never has been a recoverable 2nd stage. Starship is going to be first try at recoverable second stage.
Space shuttle was closest so far and the orbiter itself was often called (recoverable) stage 1.5 (because it does what stage 1 and 2 on typical rocket does except for massive initial help from the boosters and the tank being abandoned at the end).
I didn’t mean capsule as in a human container, I just meant whatever was on top of the upper goer…
But thanks for the 2nd stage info.
It’s a fair question.
The report says “The early thrust termination ended the mission, and the second stage and its payloads fell back to Earth, landing in the approved safety corridor in the Atlantic Ocean.”
If the second stage were recovered from that landing, its remains might have shed light on the failure.
Is it really “recovered” when it involved a year-long complete disassembly and overhaul every time?
Could have been worse. They could have installed an accelerometer backwards, despite having a housing design that precludes that very thing.
Personal experience? Or above-my-head reference?
That happened to a Proton rocket https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/07/10/200775748/report-upside-down-sensors-toppled-russian-rocket
How embarrassing !!
“and those of us in that environ will no doubt see it portrayed locally as a matter of national pride. The truth however will be that it flies on the talents of engineers from all corners of the world. ”
Someone might like to let the determined supremacists in government know about this…!
Maybe it would be more reliable without the fuel filter….
There is zero national pride in this is the UK.
Virgin who have sued the NHS organised the launch and the plane and rocket technology was not developed in the UK. In fact the system could be launched from anywhere and is only good for polar orbital launches and not the more common equatorial ones.