The first test launch of a rocket that is released from a jumbo jet at 35,000 feet (10km) and then propels itself into orbit to deploy a satellite failed on Monday, said US small-satellite launch solutions provider Virgin Orbit LLC.

“The mission terminated shortly into the flight. Cosmic Girl and our flight crew are safe and returning to base,” Virgin Orbit’s Twitter account reported as the test was underway off the coast of California.

The plane released the rocket cleanly, but the latter developed trouble of unknown origin after igniting its first-stage engine, said the company.

Founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in 2012, Virgin Orbit wants to offer a quick and flexible launch service for operators of small satellites, weighing between 300 and 500kg, a market which is currently booming.

The 21m Virgin Orbit rocket, named LauncherOne, does not take off from a vertical lift off, but rather is strapped to the underside of a wing on a converted Boeing 747 named Cosmic Girl.

When it reaches the required altitude, the plane releases the rocket, whose own engine fires up to push it into Earth’s orbit and place its payload in space.

The company said that the initial phase of the test worked after Cosmic Girl took off from an airfield in the Mojave desert where several space launch companies are based.

The plane flew to a designated area over the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Los Angeles, for the rocket release.

“Cosmic Girl has released LauncherOne!” the company said on Twitter.

“We’ve confirmed a clean release from the aircraft,” it added three minutes later, but noted that the mission had been terminated.

Hours later the company explained: “LauncherOne maintained stability after release, and we ignited our first stage engine, NewtonThree. An anomaly then occurred early in first stage flight. We’ll learn more as our engineers analyse the mountain of data we collected today.”

Before the test flight, the company had stressed that “this mission is the most technically complex thing we’ve tried to achieve yet”.

“The first few seconds after release are where it all comes together,” it said.

Asked if the rocket had been lost, a company spokesman did not immediately respond.

The concept of launching a rocket from a plane is not new. The rocket Pegasus, developed by Northrop Grumman Corp, has been around since the 1990s. But Virgin Orbit wants to make a less expensive version of the launch.

Richard Branson has founded another space company, Virgin Galactic, which is using a similar concept to take tourists into space to experience weightlessness some 80km above the surface of the Earth.

Branson had billed the first of these tourist flights for summer last year, and when that did not happen, for summer this year.