Proactive Investors - Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VORB) has a date pencilled in for next Monday for what could be the first orbital space launch from UK soil, from Spaceport Cornwall.
A regulatory navigational warning was made for the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne launch named 'Start me Up' on 9 January between 10.16pm and just past midnight.
A backup date of January 18 was also given.
A Virgin Orbit spokesperson told Space News that this navigational warning was indeed for the Start Me Up mission, although the company isn’t ready yet to announce an official launch date.
“All launch partners are currently working towards launch fairly soon,” the spokesperson said.
A Navigational Warning has appeared for the @VirginOrbit LauncherOne launch "Start me Up", for 9 Jan 22:16 - 00:16 UTC. Backup date Jan 18.Area is consistent with a launch into a ~555 km altitude, 97.6 deg inclined Sun-Synchronous orbit. pic.twitter.com/klts024xTN
— Dr Marco Langbroek (@Marco_Langbroek) January 4, 2023
The launch had been planned for before Christmas, but the company pushed the launch date into the new year said additional technical work was needed and that licences had still not been obtained for the launch itself and for the payload of satellites the rocket will carry into space.
On 21 December the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed that it had granted launch and range licences to the company to undertake launch activities from the UK.