After the failure of Richard Branson’s much hyped Virgin Orbit operation to launch a satellite from Newquay Airport earlier this year, Cornwall Council has now rushed into embracing another company that makes Mr Branson look like a staid, sensible, reliable business partner in comparison.
Cornwall Council evicted the Aircraft Museum business from a hangar on the airfield and have now entered into a lease or other arrangement to allow Space Engines Systems to occupy the site for their proposed space flights. The company’s website has images of potential spacecraft known as Hello-1, Hello-2 and Sexbomb. None of these vehicles has ever actually flown anywhere but the company claims that they will be able to reach space after taking off horizontally from a runway, and they would like Newquay airport to be one of those locations.
Unfortunately, anyone with an O level in Physics can see some flaws in their proposed modus operandi. For example, their description of the Hello-1 vehicle says:
"The HELLO-1 spacecraft is a 100% reusable horizontal takeoff and landing spacecraft powered by 2 airbreathing DASS GNX engines and a single 445 kN (100,000 lbf) thrust class LH2/LO2 rocket engine. HELLO-1 is designed to fly a suborbital trajectory to an altitude of 100 km (63 mi) while attaining speeds in excess of Mach 5. At this altitude, HELLO-1 can deploy a transfer vehicle designed to carry customer payloads to low earth orbit. The first test flight is slated for 2023.”
Assuming that their craft does reach a speed of Mach 5, this is approximately 3,800 m.p.h. In order to put any object into orbit around the earth, it needs to reach a speed of approximately 17,500 m.p.h. There is no explanation of how their proposed “transfer vehicle” could accelerate from the Hello-1 vehicle to a speed more than 4 times as fast as Hello-1. And this, as yet unknown, technology is going to be deployed this year!
As for their suggested missions to the moon, any spacecraft wanting to achieve this needs to reach a speed of 25,000 m.p.h., the escape velocity from Earth’s gravitational pull.
In short, this is a complete fantasy project. Cornwall Council and the UK Space Agency were duped into spending at least £20 million of taxpayers’ money on Richard Branson’s folly. Now, like an addicted gambler, they are trying to recoup their losses by placing more money (undoubtedly taxpayer funded) on an even more ludicrous proposal.