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The first orbital space mission launched from Western Europe has ended in failure after its rocket was unable to reach low-earth orbit as planned. LauncherOne was released from under the wing of a reconditioned jumbo jet that had taken off from south-west England. But the launch firm, Virgin Orbit, said the rocket suffered an anomaly -- thwarting the deployment of nine small satellites. The company and British government departments are investigating what went wrong; there are no further details so far. Eric Berger is Senior Space Editor at the scientific news website, Ars Technica. He told Newsday: “The first phase performed well…as that second stage engine was burning there was a problem. It looked like from the data that we were seeing on the webcast that maybe there was a leak in the liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen because the fuel was going down more quickly than expected.” (Picture: Shows a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named Cosmic Girl, carrying Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, taking off from Spaceport Cornwall at Cornwall Airport, Newquay on January 9th 2023. Credit: Ben Birchall / PA Wire.)