Britain will be a space power in a few weeks. A jumbo jet carrying a rocket will take off from an airport in Cornwall. As the plane flies above the Atlantic, it will drop its cargo, the rocket engine will be started, and a small satellite will be thrown into the air.
The first of many launches from centers around the UK is expected to take place in late November.
It is thought that up to eight Virgin Orbit flights a year will eventually take off from Spaceport Cornwall, in Newquay, while rockets lifting off from mainland Scotland and Shetland will also carry satellites into space in the near future.
John Paffett of the Spaceport Cornwall management team said that Britain has become good at building small satellites, but they have to be sent to Russia or India. Delays are often caused by that. We can now take control of everything, from planning to putting it into space.
Prospero, the UK's first satellite, was put into space on a Black Arrow rocket in 1971 and flown to Australia. The government hopes that the creation of a satellite launch industry will be worth over 3 billion pounds to the UK economy over the next 10 years.
The majority of the launches from the UK will be small. Ian Annett, deputy CEO of the UK Space Agency said, "That usuallytranslates into devices that range from shoebox-sized satellites to those with the dimensions of a washing machine."
Fifty small satellites were put into space in 2012 There were 1,900 satellites put into space last year.
The little probes offer nations detailed environment monitoring, weather observations, data relays and other services thanks to component miniaturisation. They include a Ministry of Defence satellite, a UK navigation satellite, and a mission intended to open up drug, alloy and microelectronics manufacturing in space.
The co- founder of Space Forge said that if you want to make the purest alloy, then make it in space. The ingredients are melted and combined. There is no danger of materials being oxidized because of the lack of gravity. The most uniform mixture is the one you get.
In November, the company will use the ForgeStar 0 to test onboard systems. We will launch ForgeStar-1 next year once we complete that mission. Real samples will be made and returned to Earth. We will be able to make all sorts of incredibly pure vaccines, chemicals, drugs, alloys and microelectronics using this method.
Lucy Edge of Satellite Applications Catapult said that the construction of large structures without astronauts could be done with the help of small satellites.
We could use bits of old satellites such as their solar panels and carbon fibres to build new spaceships.
It is crucial that the UK has the ability to launch the satellites that we have designed and built, because there is so much that we will be able to do in space.
The flight of One Launcher is significant because of that.
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