Face of Nation : The Government has so far vowed to put satellites into space from Britain, recently signing a deal with Virgin Orbit to start building the facilities. But now the UK Space Agency admitted it has drawn up a scheme to offer sub-orbital human spaceflight in a bid to send tourists into space. According to the Telegraph, the spaceport sites have been earmarked for Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands.
Reports suggest that Virgin Galactic is the most likely candidate to take tourists beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
There they will experience weightlessness and see the curve of Earth.
British astronaut Tim Peake believes it was “incredibly important” for the UK to lead the way in space tourism as it could see flight times between London and Australia to 90 minutes.
He said: “For Britain to be the first spaceport in Europe to be able to offer that service because we have the legislation in place, because we’ve sorted out our infrastructure, that will be huge.
“It’s a very exciting time right now. Space tourism can come under some criticism as a sport for the rich, but that’s how a lot of things in life start, that’s how aviation started.
“What might be perceived as an expensive folly today actually can in future become a very efficient means of transportation.
“If you extend Virgin Galactic’s principle of sub-orbital flight and improve the vehicles and make them with increasing endurance, you could do London-to-Sydney in an hour-and-a-half on a sub-orbital trajectory.”
Virgin Galactic’s operation is different to companies such as SpaceX, which plan to take tourists to space by rocket.
Virgin’s plan involves a horizontal launch.
Andrew Kuh, head of spaceflight policy at the UK Space Agency, said: “The Space Industry Act 2018 has already put in place the legal framework and now we’re working on the regulations to enable sub-orbital human spaceflight.
“We have a lot of history in making satellites for space but this is a whole different challenge and we need to assess safety in a different environment. But we’re hoping to have the right regulations in place so that we could launch from Britain.
“There are a few sites that are already interested in doing this and the role of government is to make sure that happens safely.”
