Spaceport Cornwall wins operating licence – one of the first missions will be to track people traffickers
Spaceport Cornwall will host the UK’s first space launch after securing an operating licence from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for its site in Newquay in the south-west of England.
Its first mission, named Start Me Up – an homage to The Rolling Stones – is expected in the next few week. The spaceport’s first customer, Virgin Orbit, is said to be in advanced stages of talks with the CAA for that specific launch and a range of licences.
The CAA is also in discussions with a number of other satellite operators.
First payload includes trafficker tracker
Last month, a repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft named Cosmic Girl (pictured) and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket travelled from California to Spaceport Cornwall last month.
The 747 will carry the rocket over the Atlantic Ocean, to the south of Ireland, where it will be launched horizontally and the plane will return to the spaceport.
The rocket’s engine will ignite and take multiple small satellites into orbit to perform a range of civil and defence applications.
Tracking people traffickers’ activities will be one of them by a satellite called Amber-1, according to the newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Amber-1 begain life in a garage in Reading, not far from London, built by British start-up Horizon Technologies.
Amber-1 will search for satellite phones and radar signals from boats that have switched off their automatic identification systems (AIS) transponders to avoid detection, the report says.
It will sweep the Earth’s oceans and seas looking for these indicators of illicit activities and forward the information to the UK Joint Maritime Security Centre and the UK’ Royal Navy.
Melissa Thorpe, Head of Spaceport Cornwall, said: “The regulatory environment created by the Civil Aviation Authority ensures that UK launch will set the global bar in terms of responsibility and transparency.
“Cornwall is now ready to open up the use of Space for Good, and support the UK industry in harnessing the power of space to benefit life on Earth.”
UK’s ambitions to be a space nation
Previously satellites produced in the UK have had to be sent to foreign spaceports to be launched into space.
Another spaceport is planned for Llanbedr, Gwynedd, in north Wales.
The government hopes commercial space launches will be worth £3.8bn to the UK economy over the next decade.
Richard Moriarty, CEO of the CAA, said, ““This is an historic moment as we licence the first ever spaceport in the UK. We’re proud to be playing our part in facilitating the UK’s space ambitions through assessing the safety, security and other requirements of these activities. This is another major milestone to enable this country to become a leading launch nation.”