The first orbital space launch on British terrority is set to take off.
Newquay Airport in Cornwall is set to become the host of the inaugural British space mission that will see a 747 jumbo jet - which has been refitted for the purpose - to send nine satellites into outer space at roughly midnight UK time on Monday (09.01.22).
If all goes to plan, it will mark a huge moment in UK space exploration as it debuts its foray into space exploration.
Melissa Thorpe from Spaceport Cornwall said: "What we've seen over the last eight years is this building of excitement towards something very aspirational and different for Cornwall, something that started off as a project that not a lot of people really believed was ever going to happen.
"What I think people have seen here in Cornwall is a small team that lives and breathes this county deliver something quite incredible."
Spaceport Cornwall has teamed up with billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s company Virgin Orbit, who has repurposed one his aircrafts into a vessel capable of carrying a rocket, dubbed LauncherOne, under its left wing.
The journey, which will begin in Cornwall, will see the plane head west over the Atlantic Ocean to a launch zone near Kerry and Cork. Following this, at the right time and at a altitude of 35,000 feet, the rocket will be released, which will then begin proceedings its engine to start to orbit.
RAF squadron leader Mathew ‘Stanny’ Stannard, who will be Cosmic Girl’s lead pilot - the name of the flight, which has had its lower deck stripped out to make it lighter - told BBC News: "We'll be monitoring the rocket, making sure it's healthy all the way out.
"And then we enter what's called a terminal count procedure. That's where things for us certainly get more interesting as we go through that sequence of pressurising the tank and chilling the lines.
"And at the end of that terminal count, it's my job to make sure the aeroplane is at the right bit in the sky, in the right position, so when the rocket says 'I'm ready to go', away she goes."
