We’re ready to go, says spaceport boss
Cornwall on brink of making aviation history as it prepares for satellite launch
THE UK’s first ever satellite launch from home soil is poised to take to the air, putting Cornwall on the map as a new centre for space exploration.
Spaceport Cornwall CEO Melissa Thorpe (pictured right) welcomed the media to Newquay Cornwall Airport yesterday and revealed they were all set for lift-off.
Launcher One, the rocket that will take the first satellites into orbit, is already attached under the wing of the adapted Boeing 747 airliner, Cosmic Girl, belonging to Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit.
“We are ready to go,” Ms Thorpe said as she explained the project to journalists from around the world yesterday, at a special press day at the airport.
The launch, the details of which will be circulated to local people once a precise date and time are fixed, marks the culmination of years of work to put Cornwall at the forefront of a new space race.
SPEAK to anyone involved with Virgin Orbit, Spaceport Cornwall or the budding space industry in the Duchy and there is certainly plenty of excitement building.
As Melissa Thorpe, CEO of Spaceport Cornwall, says, the team is ready to go and the world’s media and local residents will be able to watch the planned satellite space launch – as and when it gets its licence from the government.
The rocket LauncherOne is now attached under the wing of Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit customised Boeing 747 airliner sitting on the apron at Cornwall Airport Newquay ready to take to the skies and fire a cluster of seven micro-satellites – or cubesats – into space.
The plane itself came from Virgin Orbit’s base in the Mojave desert in America and landed in Newquay at the end of last month. Then LauncherOne also came down to the Duchy to be assembled. Finally the various scientific teams loaded their satellites onboard the head of the launcher ready to be released into their orbits in a specific order on the day.
“We are ready to go,” Ms Thorpe said. “For the launch day itself there will be notifications around the area of what’s happening as well as information shared with residents and businesses about what it will mean to them on launch day. Members of the public will be able to come up and see it. We will have an area for the public to come and watch from a safe distance.
“Preparation-wise, we’ve shifted from the operations preparedness, because we’re done from our side and the airport’s team are ready to go, towards the launch event itself and keeping it safe within the licence and safety cases in that.”
Ms Thorpe was speaking to a panel of journalists not just from Cornwall and the UK but from as far afield as the USA, Australia and Germany during a media day event organised at the Aerohub in Newquay.
Behind a chainlink fence is the plane, called Cosmic Girl, being looked after and tweaked by a team of engineers and technicians from Virgin Orbit ahead of the future launch, which company CEO Dan Hart insisted would be the first of many.
He told the press conference: “This is just the beginning for the UK space sector. This is a door that has slammed opened. The UK space sector has been vibrant for years. The industry is so focused and the ability to fly to space is vital from a scientific, commercial and national security point of view. This launch from Cornwall is just the beginning of all that.”
Cornwall councillor Louis Gardner, cabinet portfolio holder for the economy, echoed the sentiment saying this first launch will put Cornwall on the map nationally and internationally for something other than its hospitality and tourism sectors and beautiful beaches – as a centre of excellence for a growing space tech industry. “Cornwall used to be at the forefront for engineering and we have forgotten that, but now Cornwall is remembering that it can do innovative projects and can have a vision and be at the cutting edge of technology. Cornwall Council has invested a lot of money into the spaceport but this is not just a spaceport, this is a whole industry and an investment in the future and in hope for our children and future generations.
“This is about giving our children an opportunity to have great high tech jobs in a growing sector without having to leave Cornwall if they don’t want to.”
Ian Annett, deputy CEO of the UK Space Agency, confirmed that until Spaceport Cornwall and Virgin Orbit are issued an operating licence by the Civil Aviation Authority, Cosmic Girl will remain sitting pretty on the tarmac with a rocket under its wing. He admitted that there had been some delays in getting everything ready for launch and said everyone was now waiting on the CAA, but insisted it remained everyone’s ambition to see the UK’s first ever space launch from British soil take place this year.
He added: “It’s a hugely complex project. It’s about making sure the safety case meets all the regulatory aspects of the licensing and they (the CAA) are of course going through this for the first time ever. But that’s a normal process. It’s about making sure that all these launches are safe.
The licence has not been granted yet but it’s part of the process and can be expected at this point.”
He added of the launch: “Of course it is going to happen. The next question should be when is it going to happen? It is a very complex operation. There are very technical aspects while the weather plays a part too and there are licensing points we need to go through but we are certainly on track to deliver a launch in 2022 which has always been our objective.”
While no date has been set, it is understood that it could take up to two weeks after the CAA has granted its licence before it can take place as residents and various authorities need to be notified.