Virgin Orbit: Sell off - 25th May 2023
Stratolaunch buys Virgin Orbit's Modified Boeing 747, hopefully we may see this at Newquay

Virgin Orbit: Sell off - 24th May 2023
Sad News - Sir Richard Branson's rocket company Virgin Orbit has closed, with a sell off of assets.
Where does this leave the spaceport.

Virgin Orbit: Rocket firm files for bankruptcy - 4th April 2023
failing to secure new investment. The satellite launch company halted operations weeks ago but it hopes to find a buyer for the business.
Is this the end of Spaceport Cornwall ?
14th Jan 2023 Landed at Long Beach California around 22:30 UTC.

Cosmic Girl Leaves Newquay - 13th January 2023
Cosmic Girl leaves Cornwall Spaceport for home back in the USA at aprrox 08:15, lands at Fort Lauderdale (FLL) 18:24 UTC.
14th Jan 2023 Landed at Long Beach California around 22:30 UTC.

Sad News, 2nd Stage Failure - 9th January 2023
Matt Archer, the launch programme director at the UK Space Agency, said the issue occurred in the upper segment of the rocket. "The second-stage engine had a technical anomaly and didn't reach the required orbit."

6th January 2023
Possible dates for launch are 9th, 13th, 15th, 18th, 19th, 20th January 2023
All satellites for the first orbital space launch from the UK have now been issued licences

21st December 2022
At Last, the final remaining licences required for Virgin Orbit to launch from Newquay have been issued by the UK space regulator. The launch is expected in January

8th December 2022
Another delay, technical and regulatory issues, expected launch after Christmas now.

7th December 2022
The first ever orbital space launch from the UK is expected to take place on the night of Wednesday 14 December 2022
The flight is within a two-hour window, starting at 22:16 GMT, with the scheduled moment of launch expected at 23:45 GMT, launch will be off the coast of Ireland

16th November 2022
UK Civil Aviation Authority grants first ever spaceport licence, all systems go for first launch from Cornwall

25th October 2022
More info on the Nine Satellites
IOD-3 AMBER (aka IOD-3) – Developed by Satellite Applications Catapult (“SA Catapult”) and Horizon Technologies and built by AAC
Clyde Space, all based in the U.K. IOD-3 Amber is expected to be the first of more than 20 Amber satellites to provide space-based
Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) data to users.
Prometheus-2 – Two cubesats owned by the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s (MOD) Defense Science & Technology Laboratory Dstl. These
satellites, co-funded with Airbus Defence and Space who are designing them jointly with In-Space Missions, will support MOD science and technology (S&T) activities both in orbit and on the ground through the development of ground systems
focused at Dstl’s site near Portsmouth.
CIRCE (Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction CubeSat Experiment) – CIRCE is part of a joint mission between the U.K.’s Defense
Science and Technology Laboratory and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).
DOVER – Developed by RHEA Group in the UK, it is the company’s first satellite in its 30-year history. The satellite is being
co-funded through the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Navigation Program (NAVISP) and built by Open Cosmos of the United Kingdom. DOVER is a SmallSat that was created as a pathfinder for resilient global navigation satellite systems.
ForgeStar-0 – Developed by Space Forge of Wales, the satellite is a fully returnable and reusable platform to enable in-space
manufacturing. This launch will be the first for the company’s ForgeStar platform and will test future returns from space technology.
AMAN – Oman’s first orbital mission, it is a single earth observation satellite meant to demonstrate the future feasibility of a
larger constellation and was developed after a memorandum of understanding among the Sultanate of Oman, Polish Small Satellite manufacturer and operator SatRev, Poland-originated AI data analytics specialists TUATARA, and Omani-based merging
technology innovator ETCO. The agreement includes additional planned small satellites, including this, the first in Oman’s history.
STORK-6 – Stork-6 is the next installment of Polish Small Satellite manufacturer and operator SatRev’s STORK constellation.
Virgin Orbit previously launched two spacecraft in this constellation on a previous launch and looks forward to continuing to launch
SatRev’s STORK spacecraft in the future.

16th October 2022
The first UK launch mission, "Start Me Up", will be lifting nine small satellites they are: AMBER IOD-3, Prometheus-2, a pair of small cubsats, CIRCE is two cubesats, DOVER, ForgeStar-0, AMAN and STORK-6

14th October 2022
Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket landed at Cornwall Airport Newquay this evening Friday, 14th October, having set off from California in a C-17 military aircraft on Thursday.

11th October 2022
Cosmic Girl due to arrive at newquay airport around 18:20 > 18:30, Touch down at 18:26

30th September 2022
Spaceport Cornwall is officially Open for (space) Business!. The ribbon is cut on the new integration facility.

28th September 2022
First of all sorry for the lack of updates, A launch window opens up October 29th for a number of weeks, it is hoped a launch will take place.
Yesterday weather data from this site provided following a request from VirginOrbit engineering staff.

5th June 2019
Things are finally moving on. The UK Space Agency and Cornwall Council intend to make available up to £20 million for Spaceport Cornwall and US launch operator Virgin Orbit to develop facilities andoperational capabilities that would enable small satellite
launch from Cornwall in the early2020s. This investment remains subject to business case approval processes, including from Cornwall Council later this year.

17th July 2018
FARNBOROUGH, Launch operator Skyrora has announced that it will begin its engine
testing programme at Cornwall Airport Newquay’s rocket test facility later this year.

16th July 2018
Annouced today that the A'Mhoine Peninsula in Sutherland (Scotland) has been chosen as the most suitable place from which to launch rockets vertically to put satellites in orbit. Newquay was never in the running for vertical take off spaceport, not remote enough.

Virgin Orbit, has selected Spaceport Cornwall to operate and deliver one of the first launches of its LauncherOne system outside of its US home, by 2021, using a modified Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

March 2018
Once again decision delayed, hopefully May, believed to be between Newquay, Glasgow Prestwick and Machrihanish near Campbeltown.

Feb 2018
Newquay Spaceport latest - Goonhilly will be the first place in the world to offer commercial deep space comms.

Jan 2018
Newquay Spaceport latest - Monday 15th Jan 2018 saw the second reading of the Space Industry Bill, the legislation that will allow a Spaceport to be built somewhere in Britain.

Bill passed in Parliament, the count down to decision day begins.

Feb 2017
Sad news, Brexit has put a spanner in the works, the Dept of Transport has indicated there is no timetable for the bill to be introduced.

June 2015
Newquay is now among three possible locations for the UK spaceport, the other two locations are Glasgow Prestwick and Llanbedr in Wales. We now have to wait for the publication of detailed technical specifications of the space port requirements later this year and then see if Cornwall council makes a bid.

3rd March 2015
The Government review concluded the Industry backs it’s Spaceport plans. RAF Lossiemouth and Kinloss Barracks cannot be included for operational reasons. The good news is the vast majority of our regions scientific business community prefer a UK Spaceport at Newquay Airport, subject to certain conditions.

31st October 2014
A pilot was killed and another injured as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism craft crashed in the California desert. Sir Richard Branson has vowed to continue his space tourism venture despite the fatal crash of a Virgin Galactic rocket ship in the US.

Our thoughts at this moment are with the crew and family