'Nobody ever said space was easy!' - Spaceport Cornwall launch delayed due to wait for licences

  • Melissa Thorpe, Head of Spaceport Cornwall, confirming the delay

The launch of the UK's first ever satellite from Spaceport Cornwall has been delayed until the new year due to ongoing licensing issues.

Last month it was announced the Newquay site had been awarded an operating licence, giving it the go-ahead to host the historic first mission.

Head of Spaceport Cornwall, Melissa Thorpe, said she is still hopeful the launch will happen in the near future.

She said: "Nobody ever said space was easy! We stand with our partners in UK Launch and with our friends at Virgin Orbit as we work with passion and commitment towards our first launch.

"We haven't stopped, everything is still being progressed and worked on with a large amount of people pushing hard still.

"But it's just taken that huge amount of pressure off before Christmas where we only had a really small window which we could launch in.

"We'll come back after Christmas and we'll be ready to go."

The launch had been scheduled for the beginning of November, after being delayed in the summer, and will be the first of its kind from UK soil.

It is set to be conducted by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit company.

A specially-adapted 747 named 'Cosmic Girl' will take off while carrying the rocket before releasing it at 35,000ft 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.

In a statement released today (8 December) the company said the licences will not be approved in time despite being technically prepared for the launch.

Melissa Thorpe head of Spaceport Cornwall says its still a case of when not if the launch will happen Credit: PA Images

A spokesperson for Virgin Orbit said: "At this time, all our customer spacecraft have been encapsulated into our payload assembly and into our LauncherOne rocket, which is now mated to our carrier aircraft on the Echo Apron at Spaceport Cornwall.

"Through hard work and close coordination with all our launch partners, a commercial airport has been transformed into western Europe’s first orbital spaceport.

"With licenses still outstanding for the launch itself and for the satellites within the payload, additional technical work needed to establish system health and readiness, and a very limited available launch window of only two days, we have determined that it is prudent to retarget launch for the coming weeks to allow ourselves and our stakeholders time to pave the way for full mission success.

"All stakeholders continue to drive in a coordinated effort towards a historic milestone, which will soon establish the UK as the first nation with the capability to launch to orbit from western Europe."

Reflecting on how people in the UK might be disappointed to hear of another delay, Melissa says it is "frustrating" but understandable.

"In the US and other places they've been launching for 50 years and as we saw with Artemus, a lot of delays with that, whereas over here it's the first time so everybody's so excited and it's frustrating and disappointing," she added.

"We know that more than anybody. But all we can do is just make sure that we get it up there and it's safe and it delivers the satellite."