Could a former RAF airfield in the UK’s West Country become the first spaceport in Europe to fly air-launched rocket missions? Nick Spall tracks the horizontal flight plan from airport runway to low Earth orbit and speaks with Melissa Thorpe of Spaceport Cornwall
Virgin Orbit's ‘Cosmic Girl’ takes off from Spaceport Cornwall in a visualisation of the 747-400's flight across the North Atlantic to the launcher release point
Spaceport Cornwall
For the post-war generation bought up on stories of derring-do from UK test pilots like Neville Duke, Mike Lithgow and Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown it seemed inevitable that there would one day be a spaceport somewhere in the UK. Those pilots were pushing the limits of the early jets and at that time everything seemed possible for the British aerospace industry.
