Launch is hard, but at least now that every rocket is sending extremely detailed live telemetry back to HQ, teams can know what led to a failed launch within days or weeks. Case in point: Virgin Orbit’s much-hyped first launch from U.K. soil last month, which did not achieve orbit — apparently due to a single loose fuel filter.
In an update posted today to its website, Virgin Orbit explained first that everything went perfectly at every step leading up to the issue, including ignition, first-stage flight, stage separation, second-stage ignition and fair deployment — all moments when mission-ending failures can occur.
But that’s when things leave nominal:
The data is indicating that from the beginning of the second stage first burn, a fuel filter within the fuel feedline had been dislodged from its normal position.
Additional data shows that the fuel pump …
