It has been announced today that Spaceport Cornwall has reached an agreement with Virgin Orbit to launch from the Newquay spaceport.

The announcement means that Cornwall will be home to the UK’s first horizontal launch spaceport.

Here we answer some of the key questions about Cornwall’s bold ambitions to go where no county has ever been before.

Spaceport? Great, rocket launches, astronauts and all that. How exciting!

Not quite. Spaceport Cornwall will be a launch site for horizontal launches. There will be no vertical rockets shooting up into the sky from Newquay.

The operator signed up, Virgin Orbit, is using Boeing 747 planes which are used to launch satellites into space.

Virgin Orbit planes will take off from Newquay and then fly out over the Atlantic where they will launch the rockets and satellites into space before then returning to the ground in Cornwall.

A vertical spaceport is expected to be announced to be located in Scotland.

Oh, that still sounds pretty exciting. But I won’t need my space passport yet then?

No. The launches which Virgin Orbit will make will be for satellites which will be used for various reasons in space.

Virgin does have a separate arm working on space tourism – Virgin Galactic – but that is different from what is coming to Newquay.

However, Spaceport Cornwall hopes that by securing an agreement with Virgin Orbit it could lead to getting other parts of the company’s space business in future.

What about that futuristic spaceport terminal building that we have seen over the last few years – is that happening?

Not yet. As it stands the agreement will be for Spaceport Cornwall to act as a launchpad for horizontal launches.

It has been explained though that this is the first step in a project which is expected to grow and so while the spaceport buildings are not being planned right now they could become reality in the future.

So when might we start to see these launches starting?

The agreement is aiming to have the first three launches being made in 2021.

Spaceport Cornwall is also looking to attract other operators to Newquay so it might not only be Virgin Orbit which uses the facility.

Excellent, so can we expect to see lots of jobs coming from this?

Yes – it is hoped that there could be 480 jobs created and that the spaceport could generate an extra £25million for the Cornish economy.

However earlier studies have suggested that it could create an extra 2,000 jobs by 2028 and eventually bring an additional £320m into the economy.

Space can’t be cheap, how much will this cost?

No figures have been released about what it might cost or where funding might come from.

The agreement being made with Virgin Orbit is hoped to attract other operators and businesses to Spaceport Cornwall.

Cornwall Council has said that it will be investing into the spaceport and that there is expected to be funding available from the government and the UK Space Agency.

However the council has been clear that it will not be building a “white elephant” and that any investment will be in line with what is required by the operators.

Who is involved in this project?

Spaceport Cornwall is leading the scheme with input from Cornwall Council, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership, the government and Goonhilly Earth Station.

One of the key parts to this is the partnership working between Goonhilly and the Spaceport in bringing together what they can offer to the space industry.

It has been highlighted that having Goonhilly in Cornwall has been a major advantage in attracting the likes of Virgin Orbit here.

Goonhilly recently announced investments worth £32.4m which will see it expanding services and developing new areas of expertise.

So, what happens next?

Spaceport Cornwall will continue to put itself to the space market in the hope of attracting more operators and other space industry companies to Cornwall.

It will also start to secure the license which will be needed to operate horizontal space launches from Spaceport Cornwall.

Virgin Orbit is set to start test launches for its horizontal space launch craft next month in the US.