Video. Space, Start Me Up: The first satellite launch from English soil

London, January 9. (askanews) — The British space agency, UKSA, is preparing for the Start Me Up mission: the historic first launch into orbit of a constellation of satellites from British soil. After a long series of postponements, if all is confirmed, on the night between January 9 and 10, 2023, Cosmic Girl, Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747, will take off from Spaceport Cornwall, in Cornwall, carrying the high-altitude LauncherOne, which it will bring once launched. from the mother plane, thanks to a powerful rocket engine. Its precious load of satellites is in Low Earth Orbit (LEO – Low Earth Orbit). This private launch technology, thanks to collaboration between the British Space Agency, Cornwall Council, the Royal Air Force and the private space company headed by Sir Richard Branson, will allow the United Kingdom to gain the ability to independently launch satellites into space starting from its own soil and at low cost, paving the way to a separate New to the so-called new space economy. The Start Me Up mission takes its name from the historic song by the Rolling Stones, one of the most iconic British rock bands of all time and marks a series of firsts: the first ever orbital launch from the Kingdom, the first international launch for Virgin Orbit and the first commercial launch from Western Europe ( Other launches usually take place from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana). LauncherOne on board is a “family” of satellites of various sizes and nationalities, including the first satellite launched by Oman.