Spaceport Cornwall – wait, what? #space #LaunchUK

You may not think of these countries as players in orbit: Wales, Oman. But if you follow space stuff, you’ll recognize the company carrying their satellites into orbit: Virgin Orbital.

Virgin’s Cosmic Girl. Look closely for the missile-shaped launcher rocket under her wing

A modified Boeing 747 airplane known as Cosmic Girl will take off from Spaceport Cornwall in England. Once it reaches 35,000 feet in the air, the converted aircraft will deploy a rocket, called Launcher One, into space… In addition to being the first orbital launch ever from the United Kingdom, it is also the first commercial launch from Western Europe. npr

If you’re used to launch sites surrounded by empty land, just in case a rocket goes bad, you may not have considered a little island. But using an airplane to achieve the first 35,000 feet, and deploying the rocket from there, makes almost any country on Earth a potential launch site.

Virgin being a private company, tickets are sold out for the official viewing site, but (weather permitting) you could spot Cosmic Girl from the U.K. and Ireland in the first minute of her flight, and seconds later from France, Portugal and Spain.

Virgin Orbit Launcher One rocket will launch the “Start Me Up” mission on Monday, January 9, 2023 at 10:54 PM (UTC). It’s not clear if a live feed will be provided, but Click Here shortly before launch to find out.