I was at the Virgin Orbit launch of Richard Branson. It was like a festival with its silent disco and food trucks, but when the launch failed, the excitement faded and Branson watched from his private island.

• Virgin Orbit launched a rocket from Spaceport Cornwall on Monday, but the mission failed.

• The launch was like a festival complete with a silent disco, food trucks and wristbands.

• Virgin founder Richard Branson watched the launch from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Virgin Orbit launched a space mission from the UK on Monday, resulting in disappointment for many after the rocket suffered an “anomaly”.

Source: Insider

I went to Spaceport Cornwall to see the launch set to be the UK’s first orbital mission from British soil.

It was a cold, stormy night with occasional rain and hail, but more than two thousand people still came to watch Virgin Orbit take Cosmic Girl’s LauncherOne rocket into the sky.

There were several food trucks at the launch event serving regional specialties like pizza, mac-n-cheese, coffee, and Cornish pasties.

Virgin Orbit also arranged a huge marquee for a quiet disco. Staff were handing out earplugs at the door and people inside danced to famous pop songs.

Ian Annett, deputy director general of the UK space agency, said in a speech that tickets for the launch sold out faster than the Glastonbury festival, the country’s biggest music event.

Spectators wore wristbands distributed at the entrance. Joanna and Amy, two students from Falmouth University in Cornwall, said the launch event felt like a mini-festival.

Despite the electric atmosphere, one important person was missing: Richard Branson. His representative said Branson would not be able to join the team in person, but that he supports them and “sticks to the action”.

At the time of launch, she was on Necker Island, a private tropical paradise she owned in the British Virgin Islands. Branson has a net worth of $3.6 billion.

Source: Forbes

The only appearance he made was a brief speech during Virgin Orbit’s livestream of the launch.

Source: Insider

Although Cosmic Girl took off and successfully launched the rocket over the Atlantic Ocean, Virgin Orbit announced that around 6:45 PM ET, LauncherOne experienced an “anomaly” and was unable to reach orbit to deploy the nine satellites on board.

The story continues

Source: Insider

As soon as the technical malfunction was announced, the buzz ceased, and the crowds resounded with disappointments and lots of “no”s. Spectators gradually began to abandon the launch.

Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, told the press she was “devastated”, while Matt Archer, commercial space director for the UK Space Agency, said she was “disappointed”.

Branson tweeted Virgin Orbit’s statement on the failed mission Tuesday and thanked the team for working on the mission.

Meanwhile, Virgin Orbit and the UK space agency are investigating what caused LauncherOne to fail.

Read the original article on Business Insider