They laughed – but we’re close to a launch
THE dream of Newquay entering the space race was once dismissed as a joke, says Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall.
‘When it was first announced, people laughed – because you can’t imagine a spaceport in Cornwall,’ she says of the project, which could stage its first orbital launch within the next two months.
‘But that announcement was eight years ago. Now it’s feeling very real.’
This autumn, Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl aircraft will take off from Newquay Airport carrying a rocket to be released over the ocean. The launch, at night, will be Virgin Orbit’s first outside the US.
Thorpe, a Canadian, says her ambitions go far beyond the initial launch. The rockets are currently manufactured in Long Beach, California, but Thorpe wants Spaceport Cornwall to start constructing its own rocket factory within five years.
‘The UK builds a huge majority of the world’s small satellites at the moment,’ she says. ‘But they all get shipped overseas to launch.
‘Obviously we have an opportunity to control and monitor our own assets going into space. That sovereign launch is more important geopolitically now than ever before. Especially with what’s going on with Russia.’
Thorpe says the Cornish hub has already been ‘inundated’ with inquiries from global businesses which are keen to experience the ‘red carpet service to space’.
‘We’re looking at launching two to three times a year in the next five years,’ she says. ‘The plan will then be to max out at about 12 launches a year.’
Spaceport Cornwall has unlocked access to space with investment just shy of £20million.
Thorpe predicts the hub will result in the creation of 180 direct jobs with more to come as the industry grows.
‘Cornwall is one of the most deprived areas in Europe,’ she says. ‘We see huge opportunity for jobs and economic growth.
‘What we want to do here is to service a launch capability for the UK, but at the same time develop an infrastructure here that can support not just Virgin Orbit but other launch companies and other space businesses.’