Actually not a joke, Cornwall getting a spaceport

Minusorange · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:20

https://spaceportcornwall.com/

Had to make sure it wasn't a parody/joke because it seems odd to have spaceport in Cornwall of all places but it's real

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48521386

Not as glamorous as you'd imagine a spaceport to be though, it's basically a runway at Newquay airport for the Virgin Orbit modified Jumbo jet which then launches the rockets while in flight

[FnG]magnolia · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:22

Just LOL if you think that this new spaceport isn't actually a means to get rid of the specials who inhabit Cornwall and pollute our fine country.

Noobs.

Ayahuasca · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:30

@moon man must be over the...

FoxEye · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:32

Yay for public money being funnelled to Richard Branson and co.

The funding would comprise up to £12m from the council and up to £7.85m from the UK Space Agency. There would also be a contribution of £0.5m from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.

Virgin Orbit is putting up £2.5m of its own money to help the process along.

Meanwhile the Stadium for Cornwall is rapidly becoming a dream as the UK govt have rejected the business case for it.

So we can have a space port (glorified runway) for £20m but not a multi-use stadium. Nice.

FoxEye · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:35

[FnG]magnolia said:
Just LOL if you think that this new spaceport isn't actually a means to get rid of the specials who inhabit Cornwall and pollute our fine country.

Noobs.

Not funny. Again. Hypocritical. Again.

Shame we can't do anything about you "polluting" this forum.

adolf hamster · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:38

Realising how cornish it is that one of the top 5 comments on cornwall getting a spaceport is complaining about how much it costs

There's also a joke in here somewheresabout finally having a reason to go to newquay.

But on a serious note this could be promising, especially if musk gets this whole starship dream of his off the ground.

FoxEye · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:51

adolf hamster said:
Realising how cornish it is that one of the top 5 comments on cornwall getting a spaceport is complaining about how much it costs

There's also a joke in here somewheresabout finally having a reason to go to newquay.

But on a serious note this could be promising, especially if musk gets this whole starship dream of his off the ground.

Well given that Adult Social Care is on the verge of collapse down here... having the Council give Branson £12m to build him a private runway does grate a bit

Musk is not launching from jets. Apparently he has no intention of doing so.

Zefan · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:53

This has been in the running for some time. It can only be good news IMO, it isn't like that "public money" could go towards the government's own launch platform, because none exists. It's an unavoidable fact that the future of human space exploration and exploitation must involve private industry; if the USA can't do it then we certainly can't, at least nothing even close to the scale we'd like. The UK has a small but very promising space sector that needs to be stoked as much as possible over the coming years, I hope the plans in Cornwall and Scotland are only the beginning.

I understand the frustration that £12m of council money is deemed better spent elsewhere, so make sure to hold those who make bad decisions (once they are proved bad investments, no crystal balls...) to account when it comes to election time.

Rroff · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:59

Kind of an odd place to put it though - orbital or getting into space launches are more effective from either nearer the equator or nearer the pole depending on the kind of mission.

EDIT: Think this video explains it but don't have time to check at the moment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkCTA7-t1xc

FoxEye · 4 Jun 2019 at 22:59

Zefan said:
It's an unavoidable fact that the future of human space exploration and exploitation must involve private industry;

Yeah it involves private industry taking vast amounts of public money.

And this is obviously something to applaud, because giving private industry public money always works so well. Like when they run the prisons, etc.

Why can't he just raise the money to build his own runway.

Hell, he's a multi-billionaire... why can't he put up the £20m entirely himself? He could. Doesn't need to raid the public purse.

Zefan · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:01

Rroff said:
Kind of an odd place to put it though - orbital or getting into space launches are more effective from either nearer the equator or nearer the pole depending on the kind of mission.

This isn't quite the same as your normal launch though, a large amount of the heavy lifting will have been performed by the air breathing aircraft that the vehicle piggybacks on, making the location less important as it can be lighter/doesn't require as much fuel.

:edit: not to mention the mission control facilities mention in the article, and the fact that the airport is home to one of the largest runways in the UK, but is relatively quiet. I expect the future of the airport itself is actually quite dependent on new deals like this. From 2010 to 2013 I lived within 100m of the perimeter fence and spent a few hours a week in the company of those that worked there, and it never struck me as a busy place.

FoxEye said:
Doesn't need to raid the public purse.

Do you understand the meaning of the word investment?

Stephanie Peterson · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:10

This has been talked about for ages, a good place to put it due to being more southerly and of course if out big explodes then.. well

robfosters · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:14

Space Pasties! The ultimate ~~miners~~ astronaut snack.

Minusorange · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:23

Zefan said:
The UK has a small but very promising space sector that needs to be stoked as much as possible over the coming years

If only the MoD hadn't cancelled the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow in favour of an offer to use American rockets by NASA, who then cheekily withdrew the offer once we cancelled the project, we'd likely be miles ahead of Musk if we'd continued the program

FoxEye · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:35

Zefan said:
Do you understand the meaning of the word investment?

Yeah except when the public sector "invests" in private sector projects the results are often spectacularly terrible. And often results in public money being washed down the plughole.

We have a long and proud history of doing just this.

dowie · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:44

FoxEye said:
Well given that Adult Social Care is on the verge of collapse down here... having the Council give Branson £12m to build him a private runway does grate a bit

I think the idea is you might well get a bit of a return on that investment... jobs etc.. so perhaps the 12 fingered yokels will be less reliant on "adult social care" to begin with not to mention perhaps a bit more revenue for the council over time anyway.

FoxEye · 4 Jun 2019 at 23:56

dowie said:
I think the idea is you might well get a bit of a return on that investment... jobs etc.. so perhaps the 12 fingered yokels will be less reliant on "adult social care" to begin with not to mention perhaps a bit more revenue for the council over time anyway.

I don't think you understand what Adult Social Care is. It's late-stage life support, basically for retirees and the elderly. It's not a bingo hall or a place for the jobless of working age to play pool.

A lot of retirees come down here to ... well, retire. They haven't paid Council Tax in our area for most of their working lives... then they retire down here and Cornwall Council has to support them in their old age.

Cornwall has a massively unbalanced population. Young people are all trying to leave. The elderly keep ending up here. ASC is the biggest expenditure the Council has. Something like 55% of their total budget, last time I checked.

[FnG]magnolia · 5 Jun 2019 at 00:11

Just LOL if positives are ignored and your sole focus is on the 'woe is Cornwall' negatives.

Noobs.

dowie · 5 Jun 2019 at 00:27

FoxEye said:
I don't think you understand what Adult Social Care is. It's late-stage life support, basically for retirees and the elderly. It's not a bingo hall or a place for the jobless of working age to play pool.

A lot of retirees come down here to ... well, retire. They haven't paid Council Tax in our area for most of their working lives... then they retire down here and Cornwall Council has to support them in their old age.

Cornwall has a massively unbalanced population. Young people are all trying to leave. The elderly keep ending up here. ASC is the biggest expenditure the Council has. Something like 55% of their total budget, last time I checked.

They've likely been net contributors all their lives, it isn't like all local authorities are purely reliant on locally collected council tax anyway, I doubt very much enough is paid locally to cover their budget, central government provides funds.

FoxEye · 5 Jun 2019 at 01:10

dowie said:
They've likely been net contributors all their lives, it isn't like all local authorities are purely reliant on locally collected council tax anyway, I doubt very much enough is paid locally to cover their budget, central government provides funds.

Quote from the outgoing leader of the Council

By 2020, under Cornwall’s devolution deal, we won’t receive a penny from central government for services. Instead, we are allowed to keep all the revenue from Business Rates and the profit from investments.

We are expected to stand on our own two feet.

Whilst I'm all for devolution for Cornwall (and other regions of the UK that want it), the result is central govt cuts funding - to zero