Spaceport Cornwall will not go to Virgin Orbit

£12million funding for Spaceport Cornwall will not go to Virgin Orbit

16:05 06 November 2019

Virgin Orbit boss Derrick Boston said that Cornwall Council funding for Spaceport Cornwall will not to go to his firm but to UK manufacturers who will build the needed equipment for the project. The comment comes ahead of a full council meeting where councilors will decide whether to approve the £12million council funding for the spaceport.

 

The funding was recommended for approval by the Cabinet in September, but councilors were not able to reach a decision as to whether or not to support the project.

 

Spaceport Cornwall aims to become the UK”s first horizontal launch site. It has signed up Virgin Orbit to be a commercial operator that will use the spaceport for the launching of small satellites into space.

 

Glenn Caplin, from Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) said: “The assumption that we are working on is that probably 30% of the expenditure is for specifically spaceport while 70 per cent would have wider benefits for the airport.”

 

During the meeting, the councilors were also informed that the Spaceport Cornwall was developing an outreach programme for schools, colleges and universities in Cornwall.