Spectators ‘could easily’ have been killed at Cornwall Spaceport launch

An expert report’s been submitted to Parliament

If the rocket which was launched from Cornwall Newquay Airport in January had exploded before take-off spectators “would have been killed”, an expert report submitted to Parliament has suggested. The report by space technology company Newton Launch Systems led to questions at a meeting of Cornwall Council this week.

Hundreds of people attended the Virgin Orbit launch at Spaceport Cornwall on January 9 which was ultimately a failure. A modified Boeing 747 took off from Newquay airport and flew to 35,000ft over the Atlantic Ocean where it dropped the LauncherOne rocket carrying nine small satellites. A dislodged fuel filter caused the first attempt to launch satellites into orbit from the UK to fail.

The rocket components and payload then fell back to…