Next week, after months of delays, Spaceport Cornwall will finally hold the first-ever space launch from the United Kingdom.
Cosmic Girl, a modified Boeing 747 belonging to Virgin Orbit, is scheduled to take off after 10 pm GMT on Wednesday, December 14, and reach an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet.
There, Cosmic Girl will launch a 70-foot-tall rocket named LauncherOne into low Earth orbit to deploy little cube-shaped satellites (‘CubeSats).
Once deployed, the satellites’ high-tech imaging sensors will allow the Ministry of Defense (MoD) to monitor the Earth and its oceans.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted Spaceport Cornwall an operator’s license last month, allowing the site to conduct launch operations.
Before the historic launch can occur, however, the CAA must grant Virgin Orbit launch and range authorizations.
Spaceport Cornwall told that the first launch attempt window opens on December 14; however, this is “not a certain flying date.”
The launch, codenamed “Start Me Up” in homage to The Rolling Stones’ 1981 song of the same name, was originally scheduled for this summer and then for the fall.
The rocket arrived at the spaceport in October after being delivered from California by military aircraft.
Dan Hart, the chief executive officer of Virgin Orbit, remarked, “What a wonderful honor it is for us to be a part of something as historic as bringing Britain into the launch business.
Together with our government partners, we are launching a new capacity that will benefit the people, economy, and security of the United Kingdom.
Spaceport Cornwall is a horizontal launch site, meaning it deploys rockets while a carrier aircraft, such as a Boeing 747, is in flight.
Cosmic Girl, a carrier aircraft, and LauncherOne, a two-stage orbital launch vehicle, are tucked into the belly of Cosmic Girl for launch by Virgin Orbit.
Once Cosmic Girl reaches an altitude of around 11,000 meters, LauncherOne will be released.
The rocket will next propel itself to orbital altitude, at which point it will deploy satellites by hurling them at 8,000 miles per hour.
Next Wednesday, Virgin Orbit’s chief pilot, Mathew Stannard, will pilot Cosmic Girl for the historic trip.
The mission will be the first satellite launch from Britain, the first commercial launch from Europe, and the first international launch for Virgin Orbit.
Stannard, a pilot for the Royal Air Force, told, “I am incredibly proud to be engaged in this.”
It is a major issue for the UK. It is significant for Cornwall. And the fact that I will be the pilot for this expedition is unbelievable.’
Along with eight other payloads for the Prometheus-2 mission, the LauncherOne rocket is carrying two ‘CubeSats’ owned by the United Kingdom government. Each CubeSat measures around 12 inches long, 8 inches wide, and 4 inches deep.
Cubesat 1 and Cubesat 2 will serve as testing platforms for radio signal monitoring, including GPS and advanced imaging.
Cubesat 1 is equipped with a laser detector, a GPS receiver, and a hyperspectral imager capable of capturing numerous slivers of images at various light wavelengths.
Cubesat 2 is equipped with two image cameras, a laser rangefinder, and a GPS receiver.
The CubeSats will help the Department of Defense to better comprehend how the United Kingdom and its foreign partners can collaborate to produce a “more competent and adaptable system” at a cheaper cost.
The MoD CubeSats will be one of seven payloads aboard Launcher One when it lifts off from Spaceport Cornwall, a component of Newquay Airport, atop Launcher One.
Other customers include the Cardiff-based business Space Forge, whose ‘ForgeStar satellite will serve as a testing platform for microgravity research projects.
Other payloads include the first Earth Observation satellite ever launched by the Sultanate of Oman.
Virgin Orbit has completed multiple orbital missions with LauncherOne in 2021 and 2022, with the most recent occurring in July to deploy payloads for the US Space Force.
In January, another mission successfully launched seven satellites for clients including the United States Department of Defense and the British company Spire.
However, the inaugural LauncherOne mission in 2020 failed to reach space because the first stage engine stopped down prematurely.
Previous launches have originated from Mojave Air and Space Port in California, but next week’s launch will be the first from British land.
Virgin Orbit is a subsidiary of the Virgin Group, which Sir Richard Branson launched in 1970.
It was established in 2017 to create the air-launched LauncherOne rocket, which was launched by Cosmic Girl (this had previously been a project of Virgin Galactic).
Spaceport Cornwall will be joined by two more vertical spaceports in the United Kingdom, Space Hub Sutherland and SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands. Both of these spaceports will undertake more conventional rocket launches from the ground.
However, these two are not yet operational and are still under construction.
Four further spaceport locations have been proposed in the United Kingdom: Western Isles, Campbeltown, Prestwick in Scotland, and Snowdonia in Wales.
