If you long to travel to space some day, the good news is that new developments in the UK and US are bringing the tantalising prospect closer to reality.
The UK Space Agency and Cornwall Council are making available up to £20 million (US$25.06 million) for Spaceport Cornwall and US launch operator, Virgin Orbit, to develop facilities that would enable horizontal satellite launches for the first time in the UK. This will deliver small satellites into the lower earth orbit, with the first launch set for 2021. A second spaceport is planned for the Scottish Highlands, and the UK Government is working with the US to establish the necessary technical and legal safeguards.
Spaceport Cornwall will be the site for Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne system and Cosmic Girl aircraft. Image: Spaceport Cornwall
By first establishing satellite launches in the UK, it will open the door to human spaceflight in the future there. To this end, the UK Space Agency is currently drawing up regulations to allow suborbital human spaceflight from these spaceports. These flights may involve Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, which was founded by Sir Richard Branson and is owned by the Virgin Group and Mubadala Investment Company. It is creating a network of spaceports around the world and would like to have one in the UK.
VSS Unity coming home from its second supersonic flight in May 2018. Image: Virgin Galactic
Last month, Branson announced that Virgin Galactic’s development and testing programme had advanced sufficiently to move over 100 staff from Mojave, California to its commercial operations headquarters at Spaceport America in New Mexico, over the summer months. Virgin Galactic will reposition its space carrier aircraft VMS Eve and spaceship VSS Unity to Spaceport America, the world’s first, purpose-built commercial spaceport, once cabin interior and other work has been completed by its sister manufacturing organisation, The Spaceship Company.
WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, on the tarmac at Spaceport America. Image: Virgin Galactic
The latter will remain based in Mojave, where it will continue building Virgin Galactic’s planned fleet of SpaceShipTwo and carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo vehicles. To date, over 600 people from over 50 countries have reserved places to fly on these carriers to become the world’s first space tourists.
For further information on Virgin Orbit see here, Spaceport Cornwall see here and Virgin Galactic see here.
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