British humor continues to sweep over the space industry.
In February 2018, there was the "
don't panic
" - a message for the model behind the wheel - written on the dashboard of the cherry red Tesla, launched by the Falcon Heavy rocket.
There is, now, the mission "
Start me up
" - literally, "
turn me on
", in English, in reference to the Rolling Stones song.
But also to the fact that if this Monday's space mission succeeds, the United Kingdom will have taken a key step to acquire an autonomous capacity to access space.
The mission, piloted by Virgin orbit, a space company co-owned by billionaire Richard Branson, is to launch 9 small satellites into low orbit this evening on behalf of seven private and government customers.
This is a first in several respects.
It is indeed the first launch of satellites from Western Europe, the baptism of fire for the site of Newquay, a hotspot in the south-west of England, well known to surfers, which will then become the first spaceport based in Western Europe (it already has the French spaceport of Kourou, in Guyana, but it is based in South America).
A modified Boeing 747 with a rocket under its wing
Start Me Up is the result of a cooperation between the UK Space Agency (UKSA), Cornwall Council, the Royal Air Force and Virgin Orbit.
For the latter, it is also a first since it is the very first mission outside its bases in the United States.
This, with a launch system, combining an aircraft and a rocket, which was tested in 2017 across the Atlantic.
A modified Boeing 747, called "
Cosmic Girl
", is due to take off from 10:16 p.m. (UTC) with the Launcher One rocket fixed under one of its wings.
Once 35,000 feet has been reached, an altitude of some 10.5 km, the aircraft will release the rocket which, at this precise moment, will ignite its engines to tear itself away from the earth's attraction and reach the
If the mission succeeds, the Newquay spaceport would give credibility to its ambition to become the HQ for express launches of small commercial but also military satellites, thus serving as an infrastructure dedicated to what the armies call: “
responsive launch
”;
or a reactive launch in the face of an emergency situation.
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"
Ukraine has woken up the world in so many ways
," Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart said on Sunday.
The conflict demonstrated the usefulness of satellites to help the Ukrainian armies position themselves, identify targets and neutralize them.
The war in Ukraine has also shown the importance of responsiveness, like Elon Musk, arrested by kyiv on February 24, the day of the Russian invasion, who had terminals delivered to Ukraine within 48 hours so that the country is connected to the Internet via its Starlink constellation.
This replaced the largely destroyed terrestrial internet network.
"
There is clearly hope for pan-European, as well as American collaboration...to be reactive so that if something happens in the world we can deploy satellites immediately
," Dan Hart said. Force plans to carry out test missions to demonstrate the relevance of this type of ultra-fast launch.
According to several analysts, other spaceports operating on the same model could open around the world, in order to offer rapid launch capabilities to armies.
