Apologies if I missed it but surprised there hasn't been a thread on this historic event. First space launch from the UK. Guessing one of the reasons is that because we've elected to do it in the pitch black, there's bugger all to see other than a jumbo jet taking off!!
Live tracking Any one watch the skies? https://news.sky.com/story/uk-space-launch-live-updates-jumbo-jet-carrying-first-orbital-uk-rocket-takes-off-from-cornwall-12783096 (or if you find the thread title disappointingly misleading, boring …a little music instead🙂)
In other space news, I’m a bit pissed off I missed the massive red meteor fly over Sussex this evening. I was in the garden earlier with Rune Jnr and the bins checking out Mars, Jupiter and the Pleiades cluster but stargazing had ended when the meteor whizzed over.
In more positive news, Cosmic Girl has successfully landed back here at Spaceport Cornwall.
It set off from Newquay shortly after 10pm, and reached the drop point for LauncherOne - the rocket it was carrying - at just before 11.15pm.
The plane touched down back on the southwest coast of England less than two hours after its departure.
Despite news of LauncherOne running into problems, the aircraft was greeted by raucous applause by the hundreds of members of the public watching at the spaceport.
More details here - adding to the space junk already cluttering near space as 9 satellites are ’lost’ - seems incredible though that this was the first ever orbital mission
It just all seemed very British low-budget mild-comedy film funded by C4 and the National Lottery: an old reconditioned Jumbo jet wheezing down a little-used runway in Cornwall, then desperately trying to fling some satellites up high enough into the sky…
I'm well up for all this space stuff and watch every Space-x launch. Those rockets coming back down and landing is incredible.
But a question. When Space-x rockets separate all those miles above earth small objects can be seen rushing by. What are they (don't say aliens please)?