First space launch from Britain as Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit secures licence
- The billionaire aviation disrupter will turn Cornwall’s Newquay Airport in the southwest of England into Britain’s very own space hub
- It will be the first time satellites will launch into space from Europe; previously they have needed to be sent to foreign spaceports
Richard Branson disrupted the UK’s aviation sector in the 1980s with transatlantic flights, now his company will soar higher, paving the way for the first ever space mission from European soil early in the new year.
The UK’s space regulator approval for Virgin Orbit will turn Cornwall’s Newquay Airport in the southwest of England into Britain’s very own space hub.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said Richard Branson’s company demonstrated it has “taken all reasonable steps to ensure safety risks arising from launch activities are as low as reasonably practicable”.
Virgin Orbit is planning a launch from Spaceport Cornwall in the coming weeks. The mission, named “Start Me Up”, in tribute to rock band The Rolling Stones, will involve a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket.
The 747 will take off horizontally from the new facility at Cornwall Airport Newquay while carrying the rocket, before releasing it at about 11,000 metres over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland.
The plane will return to the spaceport, while the rocket will ignite its engine and take multiple small satellites into orbit with a variety of civil and defence applications. They will be the first satellites launched into space from Europe.