No council investigation into spaceport safety

The satellite launcher failed because a rocket fuel filter had become dislodged, causing one of the engines to overheat, said Virgin Orbit

Cornwall Council will not investigate the county's spaceport over claims that if a rocket exploded on the ground "people would have been killed".

Hundreds of people attended the failed Virgin Orbit operation on 9 January out of the Newquay airfield.

Space technology company Newton Launch Systems told a parliamentary committee that it had concerns about the launch.

Council leader Linda Taylor said no investigation was to be carried out "at the current time".

The first ever attempted space launch from UK soil in January ended in failure when the Virgin Orbit rocket suffered an "anomaly".

Newton Launch Systems gave the Parliament Science, Technology, Innovation Select Committee a report earlier this year, saying concerns included any rocket explosion on the runway possibly killing spectators with flying fragments and burning fuel, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

In January's launch, a jumbo jet operated by Virgin Orbit carried a rocket out of Newquay, Cornwall, to release it high over the Atlantic Ocean

It also suggested that "for safety reasons" the launch should have taken place 300km (185 miles) west of Ireland rather than at Newquay.

The report said "significant numbers of people, including members of the public" were "in close proximity to the aircraft and its fully-fuelled rocket as it taxied to the runway".

It added: "Although the risk of the rocket exploding while on the ground is quite low … had the rocket exploded, people would have been killed."

A member of the public asked the council's cabinet if it would investigate.

Council leader Linda Taylor said all launch operations "were conducted in full accordance" with licences and "the regulator was present at the launch event monitoring compliance with the licensing conditions".

"Given that no concerns from the regulator have been raised, it is not agreed that the council should conduct a investigation into Spaceport Cornwall at the current time," she said

There has been some doubt cast over the spaceport's future after in April, Virgin Orbit shut in May.

The Civil Aviation Authority previously said it remained a fully licenced Spaceport, but the operating licence would need to be amended before a new operator could launch from there.

The former boss of Spaceport Cornwall, Melissa Quinn, announced in May she was quitting to take up a post in the US.

Cornwall Council announced a two-year space sector strategy last month, including an expectation of 150 jobs at the spaceport by 2025.

Additional reporting by Andrew Segal, BBC News

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