Space Port Cornwall, Airport Newquay, Cornwall, UK
Space Port Cornwall, Airport Newquay, Cornwall, UK
Spaceport Cornwall is located at the Cornwall Airport Newquay, the main airport for Cornwall, England. The airport handled 461,300 passengers in 2017, a 24.2% increase over the previous year. Newquay has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. Airlines such as Aer Lingus, EasyJet, RyanAir and Eurowings operate regular scheduled flights to and from the Newquay Airport.
The facility has the capability to launch small space satellites into low Earth orbit using an air-launch-to-orbit type system.
In June 2019, the UK government and Cornwall Council announced they were prepared to invest up to £20M into the airport to create Spaceport Cornwall as a base for launch operator Virgin Orbit. The system, in support of the UK space industry, would launch satellite carrying rockets to space from under the wing of a converted Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 jumbo jet (Cosmic Girl) by the early 2020’s dependent on the business case put forward. On November 5th, 2019, the UK Space Agency announced that it would provide £7.35M to establish Virgin Orbit operations at Spaceport Cornwall.
On 30 September 30th, 2022, Spaceport Cornwall was officially launched, with the opening of their Space Systems Integration Facility (SSIF). The spaceport will also be home to the Centre for Space Technologies consisting of the SSIF and the Space Systems Operation Facility, an adjacent R&D work and office space. The spaceport, working with new businesses in the local area and the University of Exeter aim to be the first to reach Net Zero globally.
On November 16th, 2022, it was announced that Spaceport Cornwall had been granted an operating licence by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) allowing it to send satellites into space.
As of December 2023, Spaceport Cornwall are working on system development and UK return missions with launch operators Sierra Space and Space Engine Systems. In addition, the spaceport is in discussions with an established horizontal launch provider with a view to support UK launches from mid-2025.
Virgin Orbit
The first launch from the spaceport using the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne system took place on January 9th, 2023 with a payload of several SmallSats. However, after being released by its carrier aircraft, the LauncherOne rocket suffered an upper stage engine anomaly at approximately 180km (112miles) altitude on its ascent into space, failing to achieve orbit and resulting in the loss of the payload. The flight was the only one carried out from the spaceport using the Virgin Orbit system.
After failing to secure new investment, Virgin Orbit halted operations in March 2023 and filed for bankruptcy in the US in April 2023.
The company sold the majority of its assets to Rocket Lab USA, Launcher Inc. and Stratolaunch Systems. Rocket Lab was the successful bidder for Virgin Orbit’s factory in Long Beach, California, including the machinery, equipment and lease. Launcher purchased the facility in Mojave, California, including the lease, machinery, equipment and inventory in a 2.7 million USD transaction. Stratolaunch, which designs hypersonic vehicles, acquired the modified Boeing 747 ‘Cosmic Girl’, for 17 million USD.