UK launch starts final countdown

For Cornwall, Virgin Orbit flights from Newquay are a magnet for space-focused talent and commercial ambition

A long-running plan to host orbital launches in the UK could be realised within a year, as Spaceport Cornwall and launch operator Virgin Orbit make tangible steps toward first flight. Virgin’s air-launched system is now operational from its California home base, and the pieces are falling into place that will allow the company to make good on a 2018 agreement to add operations from Cornwall.

Virgin has signed a contract to build the Transportable Ground Operating System it needs on hand to ready its LauncherOne rockets for mounting to the underside of its 747 carrier aircraft. The May 2020 award to realise that part of the plan went to space and scientific equipment maker AVS (Added Value Solutions), based at the Harwell technology cluster near Oxford. 

As that AVS deal was being finalised, I spoke to Melissa Thorpe, head of Spaceport Cornwall, about progress towards having Newquay airport ready to host Virgin Orbit. By the standards of space launch schemes, this one is relatively straightforward; one beauty of air-launch is its portability, and at Newquay the necessary facilities and infrastructure are mostly enhancements of an airport already capable of handling 747s. Thorpe hopes to launch early next year, or “first half of 2022 no matter what”.

No first launch customer has been indicated yet, but Virgin Orbit’s growing launch manifest now includes two flights beginning in 2023 to orbit satellites for UK-based Arqit’s quantum-encrypted communications system. Further launches under discussion, says Virgin, could fly from Spaceport Cornwall. 

As the old saying goes, when it looks good it probably flies good (Spaceport Cornwall)

The coronavirus pandemic has not surprisingly impacted the scheme, as about half of the Cornwall County Council-allocated spaceport development budget ended up going to supporting the airport business. That necessitated a funding effort during the latter part of 2020 and some adjustments to the infrastructure plan, which Thorpe says she will be free to detail publicly soon. But the expected total cost remains at ￡12m for airport enhancements such as runway lighting and other ground infrastructure, plus ￡7.58m from the UK Space Agency for the ground handling equipment and storage facilities, with ￡2m from Virgin for intellectual property and some licences and consultant costs.

The plan as it now stands, she says, is better value for money: “It’s much more beneficial to Cornwall and the UK, what we’re building now.” It’s an “ambitious” plan that will “future proof” Newquay Airport for more 747 movements. Now, site clearance work is underway to demolish old air traffic control structures and other facilities; groundbreaking on new work will commence the week after Cornwall hosts the 11-13 June G7 summit.

With Virgin Orbit now flying and the “infrastructure side well underway”, Thorpe notes that the only potential showstopper is the not-trivial matter of UK law. While the Space Industry Act 2018 was landmark legislation overturning decades of policy that effectively forbade launch from the UK - and to some observers offers a model for 21st Century launch regulation - any actual launch depends on supplementary legislation, which the government has yet to propose and must cover critical issues like ceilings on insurance liability. Thorpe anticipates imminent movement, however – and here she echoes Edinburgh-based rocket developer Skyrora – so 2022 promises to usher in a new UK space age.

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When London can clear the last legislative hurdles remains of course to be seen, but launch is not regarded as politically controversial. The vision of launch from UK soil dates to 2014, and plans are advanced in Cornwall and for two vertical launch sites at the other end of the country, at Sutherland and Shetland in Scotland. While early hopes for operations by 2018 clearly didn’t come off, launch fits neatly into longstanding government ambitions to command 10% of a fast-growing world space sector by 2030, which could make direct space business activity in the UK worth ￡40 billion.

Whatever the UK national picture, Cornwall’s prospects look solid in the new space age. Out at this tail end of Great Britain, Newquay airport virtually overlooks wide-open Atlantic waters and a clear air launch to either polar or equatorial orbits. The first launch, says Thorpe, will be polar. Aside, it’s worth noting that one of the keenest proponents of a UK launch capability is the RAF, whose interest is in both strategic and tactical deployment of polar-orbiting Earth observation satellites.

Spaceport Cornwall also has a natural ally in Goonhilly Earth Station, with both legacy and recent radio dishes and other facilities that make it a force in spacecraft communications. As part of the Spaceport consortium - with the county council, airport and Virgin Orbit - Goonhilly is the mission control partner.

Thorpe sees Cornwall as part of a broader UK launch proposition. The big picture objective is to “capture as much opportunity for the UK as possible”, and she describes the relationship with sites in Scotland as partnering: “It’s a UK launch proposition, where our competitors are spaceports in Europe.” This UK launch proposition, she adds, needs to be able to cope with future concepts in space technology - balloons, for example.

But Thorpe is not shy in representing Cornwall. Launch from Newquay means enhancing the existing airport, which has its own commercial life and so launch at the Spaceport won’t be “just come in, launch and go”. The plan is to build a cluster around “launch IP”, to “take advantage of the catalyst that launch is.”

Thorpe at Virgin Orbit's Long Beach rocket factory, with lightweight cardboard cutout of heavyweight Branson (Spaceport Cornwall)

Given Virgin Orbit’s readiness and the relatively light infrastructure demands of air launch, it is almost certain to be Spaceport Cornwall that hosts the first ever orbital launch from the UK. She readily concedes that Spaceport Cornwall can’t do everything – no vertical launch and no heavy launch – but “first mover advantage is going to be big.” And, Cornwall has a great ally in its key partner: “There is so much weight behind Virgin.”

Timing is also playing into Cornwall’s hands. Thorpe may not be all that far off the mark when she says people are “emptying out of London”; post-pandemic, launch is a “magnet” for many people who before would have thought of Cornwall only as a holiday destination: “We are inundated already with people wanting to be part of this.”

At the same time, one of Thorpe’s big challenges is to prevent inundation. Spaceport Cornwall’s literature is sensitive to local concerns that about 150 jobs expected to be created by the spaceport will simply go to outsiders. “Cornwall,” says Thorpe, “is one of the most deprived areas in Europe.” It is not possible to hire them all locally - “Cornwall’s skills base is not in space” – but more than half, about 80 jobs, should be local hires.

Building that skills base is among Thorpe’s priorities, and work with local colleges is paying dividends. Truro College is starting a spacecraft operations course, and the University of Exeter is building relevant courses. Half of recent hires at Goonhilly have been local, she adds, and Avanti Communications this year had a four-fold increase in interest in internships at its Goonhilly base.

That's open sea just beyond a 9,000ft runway originally built for the RAF (Cornwall Newquay Airport)

While nurturing Cornish society, the Spaceport also has the global ambition of being the most sustainable launch site in the world. “I’ve been tasked to deliver on that,” says Thorpe. Hence the project is pushing themes of “environmental intelligence” and ethical boundaries. The Spaceport has set a limit of 12 launches per year and may place some restrictions on what missions it will accept.

Council funding, Thorpe explains, comes with responsibilities, and launch – and its impact – is a high-profile business, as illustrated by the fact that a 2019 meeting to approve Spaceport funding attracted an Extinction Rebellion protest. Airport development by a Council which had previously declared a climate emergency may have been the protesters’ focus rather than launch per se, but the episode highlights what Thorpe sees as a need for education about space.

People tend to see space as complicated, she says, as something they don’t understand - and hence many people don’t realise how they use space-enabled technologies every day. “But the hunger for satellites and what they do is exponential,” says Thorpe. Following from there comes talk of negatives, like space debris, and of who is responsible for what goes up: “As a spaceport, we are the ones who are that gateway.”

Which swings back to environmental intelligence and ethical boundaries and a conversation which Thorpe says “needs to be bigger and wider”. Do we turn away launches that don’t fit with what we want Spaceport Cornwall to be involved with? Do we need to know what is launched here? Where is responsibility for what is launched? How does Cornwall want to be represented in space?

Some answers will be revealed at the G7, when Cornwall Council releases a report on space sustainability. “I don’t know the answers yet”, says Thorpe, “but at least I’m asking the questions.”

In any case, she adds: “I’m still here, they haven’t asked me to go away yet!”

Coming soon... (Virgin Orbit)

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Dan Thisdell adds: I write about European spaceflight: industry, politics, science and money. After a fruitful mid-career at Flight International, I am preparing to launch a newsletter for space industry investors: Geoconomy. Watch this space and contact me via LinkedIn - especially if your company should be profiled.