Sir Richard Branson presents a model of ‘Spaceship One’ after a press conference for Virgin’s new Virgin Galactic service at Emirates Towers on March 29, 2006 in Dubai United Arab Emirates. Chris Jackson / Getty Images
British billionaire Sir Richard Branson may have big dreams about the future of space tourism, but his potential UK launch partner is calling the idea ridiculous as the COVID-19 pandemic shakes the country’s economy and worsens inequality.
Virgin Group of Branson is seeking to enlist Spaceport Cornwall, an airport in the city of Newquay, in southwest England, as a launch site for Virgin Galactic, which plans to send tourists into suborbital space for 90-minute trips. Cornwall is already a launch partner for another Branson space adventure, Virgin Orbit, which sends satellites into Earth orbit by connecting a small rocket to a modified Boeing 747 aircraft.
But the spaceport doesn’t seem interested. At a meeting this week, Spaceport Cornwall Council leaders called the idea of facilitating space tourism “a big waste of money” and “a wrong message” for local residents, according to the local British newspaper The Falmouth Package.
“The Cornwall Council will not conduct any space tourism operations from the airport,” said council leader Julian German.
See too: Virgin Galactic has just lost another $ 60 million. Is space tourism pandemic-proof?
Another board member, John Fitter, said: “If we were to consider this, it would be quite ridiculous and send the wrong message to people in Cornwall who could be suffering below the minimum wage and in poverty and allow people to have many millions of pounds to spend for [go] up to space for half an hour and go down again. ”
Council member Geoff Brown added: “It was never an intention for us to do space tourism, it was always about small satellites, low-orbit launches monitoring climate change and that sort of thing.”
Virgin did not respond to the Observer’s press question about negotiations with Cornwall.
Virgin Galactic offers a 90-minute round trip to the Kármán Line, which divides the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, for $ 250,000 per seat. The company said it made about 600 reservations and originally planned to launch the service in 2021. But that schedule was postponed after a key test flight failed in December 2020.
During his last earnings call on Thursday, CEO Michael Colglazier said that commercial service should now begin in 2022. Last summer, Virgin Galactic unveiled the passenger cabin of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle. The company is prepared to present a new spacecraft, SpaceShip 3, on March 30. However, the next test flight with crew will not happen until May, said Colglazier.
Virgin Galactic’s shares plunged up to 15 percent in Friday morning news. In the last quarter of 2020, the space company reported zero revenue, but losses decreased to 31 cents per share, from 37 cents a year earlier. The company is spending about $ 16 million each quarter and had more than $ 660 million in cash at the end of 2020.
