Britain is expected to make a breakthrough in the next year. The United Kingdom will be the first place in the world where a satellite will be launched.
Exactly where this grand adventure will begin is not yet clear. The UK Space Agency backed a number of operations that are trying to be the first to launch a satellite from British soil.
One is based in Cornwall, where a Virgin Orbit jumbo jet is set to carry a rocket to a height of 35,000 feet, where it will be fired to propel its satellite cargo into space. The first flight will be in late summer.
Two-staged rockets that could put satellites round the Earth in late autumn are being planned by the two Scottish spaceports.
There are plans to build spaceports in Scotland at Campbeltown, Prestwick and North Uist, and Wales has revealed its own method for getting into space: by balloon. It plans to release a dirigible that will carry a rocket to a height of more than 20 miles. The satellite cargo will be carried into the sky.
The most likely places to see first successes next year will be the Cornish, Sutherland and Shetland programmes, which are located in some of the most remote parts of the British Isles.
B2Space has a balloon. B2Space.
The carbon-friendly, re-usable aspects of the spaceports' operations have received cautious support from most local people. The site for the spaceport is located in the middle of the Melness Crofters Estate on the A'Mhoine peninsula, which is the northernmost part of mainland Scotland. The people of the area are known for their cattle, fishing and tending the land, but have welcomed the project that could see rockets fired over their homeland.
The chair of Melness Crofters' Estate said that this is not going to be the Cape Canaveral of the Highlands. Every year there will be a few launches. The spaceport will give skilled jobs to young people. Young adults are leaving and the population around here is getting older. A spaceport will provide jobs for skilled, educated young people.
Not everyone has been enthusiastic. The spaceport would harm the plans of the local billionaire, according to him. Povlsen will not appeal against the decision of the judicial review that threw out his attempt to block the project.
The head of Spaceport Cornwall is with a craft. The Guardian has a photo of Jonny Weeks.
A Prime rocket built by Orbex, a UK-based launcher manufacturer, is expected to make its maiden flight from the spaceport in the autumn. Orbex describes its Prime rocket as one of the most advanced, low-carbon, high- performance micro-launch vehicles in the world.
The spaceport is located on mainland Britain, which is the most remote part of the country, and it looks like it is bustling compared with the other spaceport, which is located in the north of the UK. The rockets will be delivered next year.
The site has special advantages. Many Earth monitoring satellites that study sea-level fluctuations and ice-sheet changes fly in polar circles around the Earth on their way to the equator. The Earth revolves beneath the craft as it sweeps over the poles, allowing it to watch the planet underneath it. Spaceports such as Sutherland's and SaxaVord are a key benefit because of the safe blasting of a rocket northwards.
The operations director of the Shetland spaceport said that they have to make sure they have as much flexibility as possible. To attract as many different customers as possible, we need to be able to launch satellites that are 500 kilogrammes or 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465 888-282-0465, down to 10 kilogrammes. Our rockets are designed to do that.
An artist's impression of a rocket launch. The photograph is of Lockheed Martin.
Operators at Cornwall's spaceport take a different approach. The Cosmic Girl, a retrofitted jumbo jet that is operated by Virgin Orbit, will be used to carry their satellite launch vehicle aloft. This spaceport will be used by Virgin Orbit as its European base, and it has already launched satellites over the Pacific.
The head of Spaceport Cornwall said that Virgin Orbit takes the opposite route by coming to a site near you to offer a launch. Cornwall will be the centre of its European operations, as it has set up bases around the world. It will be easier for UK satellite builders to get their craft into the correct position.
Britain is concentrating on the growing market for launching small satellites, which are usually less than 500 kilogram in weight, in the set of launch plans. Ian Annett, deputy chief officer of the UK Space Agency, said there were around 50 launches of small satellites in 2012 The market grew by more than 400 by 2019.
It used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a kilo of material into space. Commercial launching companies, like Musk's SpaceX, have brought that cost down to $1,000.
Reductions are opening up low Earth orbit for exploitation by a wide range of users, from single university departments to companies planning to exploit global markets. OneWeb has announced plans to put hundreds of small satellites into space to provide global broadband coverage. Others want to use them to study the impacts of climate change, carry out disaster monitoring, manufacture alloys and drugs in microgravity, test new communication technologies, and implement a host of other applications. Small satellites range from the size of an oven to a phone and can be launched individually or in clusters.
It is not known if the UK's space launch industry can attract enough business to keep all seven proposed spaceports busy. There is confidence in their prospects. For the first time, Britain has a chance to exploit the market potential from within its own shores.
