 in lengthA government committee is expressing concerns over the time it is taking to issue licences for the first launch of satellites into space from UK soil.The Virgin Orbit plane and rocket arrived at Cornwall Airport Newquay in October ahead of the mission.The Science and Technology Select Committee said it was "disappointed" the launch had not yet happened.UK space regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it "continues to work proactively with all parties".The committee published a report into UK space strategy and UK satellite infrastructure on Friday.Included within the report, it said: "We are disappointed that a launch from the UK has not yet been achieved, especially as we were assured on several occasions that the first horizontal launch would take place in summer 2022."It added: "We are concerned that the delay in achieving the first UK launch is partly due to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) being unable to process licence applications in a timely manner."Image source, Spaceport CornwallImage caption, Cornwall Council and Spaceport Cornwall said they were "confident that the appropriate licences will be in place shortly"The CAA was appointed as the UK's space regulator in 2021.It expects decisions on licences to take between six and 12 months for spaceports and nine and 18 months for launch operators from the point an application is received.In November 2021, the head of Spaceport Cornwall, Melissa Thorpe, told the committee it had submitted its application a few weeks earlier.It is not known when Virgin Orbit applied for a licence for its rocket, called LauncherOne.Each of the nine satellites on-board also requires licences, although the CAA has issued satellite licences since 1986.Image caption, Melissa Thorpe says the spaceport is continuing to work closely with the CAAA CAA spokesperson said: "We are assessing the evidence supporting a r){kind=link}
A government committee is expressing concerns over the time it is taking to issue licences for the first launch of satellites into space from UK soil.
The Virgin Orbit plane and rocket arrived at Cornwall Airport Newquay in October ahead of the mission.
The Science and Technology Select Committee said it was “disappointed” the launch had not yet happened.
UK space regulator the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it “continues to work proactively with all parties”.
The committee published a report into UK space strategy and UK satellite infrastructure on Friday.