Virgin Orbit receives license to launch UK’s first satellite

The British company Virgin Orbit has been licensed to operate Britain’s first space launch, Report informs referring to BusinessNews.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson’s company had demonstrated that “it has taken all reasonable steps to reduce as far as is practicable the safety risks arising from launch activities”.

Virgin Orbit plans to launch from Spaceport Cornwall at Cornwall Airport Newquay in the coming weeks.

The mission, named Start Me Up in homage to the rock band The Rolling Stones, will include a recreated Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft and Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket.

The 747 will take off horizontally from the new facility at Cornwall Airport Newquay carrying the rocket before releasing it at 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean in the south of Ireland.

The aircraft will return to the spaceport while the rocket ignites its engines and carries several small satellites into orbit with various civilian and defense applications.

They will be the first satellites to be launched into space from Europe. Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “Today we are one step closer to opening the UK’s Galactic Gateway, with Virgin Orbit receiving a historic first license to allow the UK’s first spaceflight launch.

“The planned launch reinforces our position as a leading space nation as we look to the future of spaceflight, which could spur growth and innovation across the sector, as well as create thousands of jobs and apprenticeships. “

Satellites built in the UK previously needed to be sent to an overseas spaceport to be put into space.