Europe's 1st-ever rocket mission blasts off from Cornwall, UK

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Virgin Orbit launched its LauncherOne rocket Monday from Cornwall, England, marking the first-ever orbital launch from the UK.

The Start Me Up mission -- a collaborative effort between the UK Space Agency, Cornwall Council, the Royal Air Force and Virgin Orbit -- will carry satellites from seven customers to space, including commercial and government payloads from several nations and a collaborative US-UK mission.

As part of the mission, the Virgin Orbit plane, carrying nine small satellites, lifted off from Cornwall Spaceport at 2202GMT.

The LauncherOne was successfully released from its carrier aircraft at 2309GMT.

In November, the Cornwall Spaceport received the UK's first-ever spaceport license from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Earlier, Ian Annett, deputy CEO at the UK Space Agency, said they are "entering a new era for space" as the mission marked the first-ever satellite launch from UK soil and from Europe.

"This is a significant landmark for the nation, the UK Space Agency and for all those who have worked so hard over many years to make our ambitions to create a commercial space launch capability a reality," he added.