Poised for lift off in a new space race
Satellites could be launched into space from Cornwall as early as next year. Peter Burnside looks at the background to Spaceport Cornwall
THE West is poised to grab a major share as the space sector enters a new era with an explosion in the number of satellites.
Cornwall Council is about to consider a £12 million injection into the Cornwall Spaceport project at Newquay that is set to become the UK’s first launch station for the latest generation of small satellites.
Forecasts are that the Spaceport will add 150 jobs by 2025 and boost the county’s economy by £200m
every year with a ripple effect throughout the South West. The aim is for Cornwall to be a lead centre for the testing and building of small satellites – UK manufacturers currently dominate the global market. Meanwhile, the world-renowned Goonhilly Earth Station continues to grow.
IT IS more than 60 years since Russia launched the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and 50 years since America put the first man on the Moon.
The decades of exploration and exploitation of space have been dominated by the US, Russia, a collection of nations through the European Space Agency, and latterly China.
There are almost 2,000 active satellites orbiting Earth today but that figure is set to be dwarfed by a new era in the space race. There will be an explosion in the number of small satellites – thousands of the spacecraft, many weighing less than 10kg (22lb) are planned to be launched in the coming years.
Despite the UK’s perceived image as a small player, Britain builds the majority of the world’s small satellites. The UK Space Agency estimates that 2,000 of them will be launched worldwide by 2030 in a commercial launch market worth £3.8 billion to the UK economy over the next decade. But there is currently no place where they can be launched from UK soil.
Five years ago the Government began a search for potential ‘spaceport’ locations to give Britain its own launch capability.
Since 2014, the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Cornwall Council have been promoting Cornwall Airport Newquay as a location for a horizontal spaceport. The plan is to use planes, not rockets, as launch vehicles. Last year the council
signed a partnership agreement with Sir Richard Branson’s satellite launch company, Virgin Orbit, to establish a European hub at Newquay.
This summer the UK Space Agency announced that it would provide up to £7.85m towards Spaceport Cornwall as part of a £20 million package of public funding. The LEP has agreed to invest £500,000, and Cornwall Council’s Cabinet will next week meet to decide whether to commit £12m towards the project. Virgin Orbit will invest an additional £2.5m, on top of the $1 billion the company has invested in developing the technology to date.
For the LEP, which is charged with creating jobs and improving the economy, Spaceport Cornwall is a flagship project that could establish Cornwall as a critical part of the UK’s fast-growing space economy. The LEP has identified space as a key growth area which is why it has funded the Spaceport project to date and is also investing £8.4m in upgrading Goonhilly Earth Station on the Lizard for deep space communications. Goonhilly built a worldwide reputation in the early days of the space age as a key location for satellite tracking
Spaceport Cornwall will be a significant asset for Cornwall
MARK DUDDRIDGE, CORNWALL & ISLES OF SCILLY LEP
and communications – the images of Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” in 1969 were beamed through Goonhilly. It’s estimated that a spaceport at Newquay will create 150 direct jobs by 2025 and add £200m to the Cornish economy every year.
Perhaps more importantly, it is expected to act as a catalyst for attracting other space-related companies and investment to Cornwall, and create potentially thousands of jobs as new products, services and companies emerge from the use of space data. Spaceport Cornwall is also inspiring young people in Cornwall to pursue careers in science and engineering. If all goes to plan as the UK aims to grow the UK space sector from the current £14.8 billion (three times the 2000 mark) to £40bn, creating 100,000 new
jobs by 2030, Cornwall and the South West will be making a major contribution.
LEP Chairman Mark Duddridge said: “Cornwall has a growing space sector that pays more than twice the average wages for Cornwall. As we develop more and more uses for satellite data, so the opportunities for innovation, new businesses and well-paid jobs will grow.
“Spaceport Cornwall will be an internationally significant asset for Cornwall and help us take a lead role in the UK’s emerging spaceflight sector. It will act as a magnet for investment and talent, deliver a major part of the Government’s space strategy, and inspire a new generation.”
IN July the world was gripped by memories of the first manned voyage to the Moon, 50 years ago. The excitement that event generated at the time was re-kindled for many watching and reading about it half a century later. Some of that thrill was, we hope, felt for the first time by younger generations for whom the idea of manned space flight now seems confined to films and fiction.
Those who are 50 plus may have been rather spoiled by the Apollo missions and the drama of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins and their trip to the moon. But if space travel has lost a little of that human edge, it has gained a whole new level of economic importance, as the Western Morning News is reporting all this week.
Cornwall, for centuries a pioneering part of the world in industry and innovation, now stands right on the cusp of sharing in the new 21st century space race, to put more satellites in orbit around the earth to help our lives in so many ways. The UK Space Agency estimates that 2,000 small satellites will be launched worldwide by 2030 in a market worth £3.8 billion to the UK economy over the next ten years.
With the UK lacking a launch site there was a risk that although Britain manufacturers most of the world’s small satellites, the potential to share in the valuable launch market could be lost. But that has changed now that Newquay in Cornwall, along with a site in Scotland, has been identified as an ideal place for a spaceport, working with Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit company.
The investment to make the spaceport a reality is substantial. But the rewards will be great as well. That’s one reason the Western Morning News is urging Cornwall Council’s cabinet to commit to spending the £12m contribution it must put in for the scheme to literally get off the ground.
Other funding is coming from the UK Space Agency, which is planning to invest almost £8m. The Local Enterprise Partneship is putting in £500,000. Virgin Orbit has already spent a billion dollars on its satellite launch business and is pledging a further £2.5m to help kick-start the Cornwall project. Without Cornwall Council’s cash, however, the opportunity could be missed.
There will, we know, be naysayers who think there are better and more pressing ways to spend £12m of local council tax payers money. But sometimes in local government, as in business, you have to play the long game for the greatest benefit. When it comes to developing space technology the sky really is the limit. Even those who dimissed the manned flights by NASA through the 60s and beyond as politically-motivated vanity projects by successive US governments can see that launching satellites is a vital and growing area of business. To miss out would be a grave mistake.
The jobs, wealth and spin-off businesses that will be created from Spaceport Cornwall will be signficant, with wage levels on offer in many of the roles far above the average at the moment. And the kudos that will come to Cornwall from taking a leading role in the new Space Race will be enormous. The opportunity is there. It should be grabbed with both hands