On January 9, 2023, Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc. initiated its Start Me Up mission orbital launch attempt of its LauncherOne system from Spaceport Cornwall in the UK . After successfully proceeding through pre-launch operations and taking off as planned from the runway at Spaceport Cornwall, Virgin Orbit's carrier aircraft traveled to the drop zone selected for this mission and successfully released the rocket. The rocket subsequently ignited its first stage engine, thereby, successfully completing the stage one burn.

Initial data assessments indicate that the first stage of the rocket performed as expected, the rocket reached space altitudes, and stage separation, ignition of the upper stage, and fairing separation similarly occurred per the planned mission timeline. Thereafter, at some point during the rocket's flight through space, the upper stage experienced an anomaly. This anomaly prematurely ended the first burn of the upper stage.

This anomalous event ended the mission, with the rocket components and payload descending to Earth within the approved safety corridor without having achieved orbit. Virgin Orbit's carrier aircraft and its crew returned safely to Spaceport Cornwall after the anomalous event. Extensive telemetry coverage for the flight allowed for the collection of a significant amount of data during the mission, enabling Virgin Orbit's engineers and review board members to start their analyses immediately upon detection of the anomaly.

Virgin Orbit has initiated a formal investigation into the source of the second stage failure. A fault analysis and investigation of the anomalous event will be conducted with government insight, and implementation of all required, corrective actions identified during the investigation will be completed prior to initiation of Virgin Orbit's next flight endeavor. Virgin Orbit is continuing to process its next scheduled rocket through final integration and checkout ahead of its upcoming mission, which is planned to occur from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Virgin Orbit also anticipates returning to Spaceport Cornwall for additional launches, and is in active discussions with key government and commercial stakeholders in the UK to start planning mission opportunities for as soon as later this year.