Virgin Orbit company aborted its first attempt to launch a rocket into space from a modified airplane3Photo© firstpost.com

Virgin Orbit company aborted its first attempt to launch a rocket into space from a modified airplane

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Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit company aborted its first attempt to launch a rocket into space from the belly of a 747 airplane on Monday, the company said.

In a test of the company’s plan to launch satellites into space, the 21.34 m rocket called LauncherOne was to blast into orbit at about 6.5 miles altitude from a modified airplane named Cosmic Girl.

The mission from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California was “terminated” moments after the rocket’s release from the jetliner, just before 3 p.m. ET/1900 GMT over the Pacific Ocean, the company said in a statement on Twitter.