Britain’s historic first ever orbital space launch on UK soil has run into difficulties, after Virgin Orbit announced that ‘an anomaly has prevented us from reaching orbit’.
A repurposed 747 jumbo jet took off from Cornwall shortly after 22:00 GMT and just over an hour later dropped a 70-ft long rocket from its belly which then blasted into space.
However, Sir Richard Branson’s company tweeted minutes later that there had been a problem. It is unclear if this can be