Cornwall Council funding for Spaceport Cornwall will not be going to Virgin Orbit but will provide benefits for Cornwall.

That was the message from Virgin Orbit boss Derrick Boston when he took part in a briefing for Cornwall councillors.

The all-member briefing at County Hall heard from Mr Boston, who had flown in from the US, as well as representatives from the spaceport and RAF St Mawgan.

Councillors were invited to the briefing to ask questions ahead of a full council meeting later this month when they will be asked to approve up to £12 million council funding for the spaceport.

The funding was recommended for approval by the Cabinet in September – although that vote saw councillors divided on whether to support the project.

Spaceport Cornwall is aiming to become the UK’s first horizontal launch site and has signed up Virgin Orbit to be a commercial operator from the port at Cornwall Airport Newquay.

Virgin Orbit will use the spaceport to launch small satellites into space from a modified Boeing 747 with the company’s LauncherOne system attached.

Full testing is still ongoing on the craft but it is hoped that the first launch could be made from Newquay in 2021.

Mr Boston, chief operating officer for Virgin Orbit, said it was his first time in Cornwall. He explained that he had been in London talking to the UK Space Agency to negotiate government funding.

He explained that funding would be spent with UK manufacturers to build equipment in the UK and that would remain in the UK.

But councillors heard that the funding from the council would not be going to Virgin but to provide improvements and works at Newquay airport.

Glenn Caplin, from Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) said: “The assumption that we are working on is that probably 30% of the expenditure is for specifically spaceport while 70 per cent would have wider benefits for the airport.”

Councillors raised concerns about the environmental impact of the spaceport and about the plans for carbon offset.

Mr Boston highlighted that the UK was one of the leading manufacturers of small satellites in the world but does not have the facilities to launch them.

He said that Spaceport Cornwall would change this and would stop firms having to transport satellites across the world to launch them.

Mr Boston said that at present small satellites have to be flown to locations five hours away before they can even be launched. With Spaceport Cornwall they could be launched from the UK, reducing their carbon footprint.

Councillors wanted to know what Virgin was doing for Cornwall and Mr Boston said: “We are here to make Cornwall a success. We want to make the spaceport a success.”

He said the company had spent a “significant amount of money” on developing the technology which it wanted to use at Newquay.

And he said that Virgin was working with the Ministry of Defence at RAF St Mawgan on Operation Artemis which would help provide the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with capabilities to launch satellites.

Councillors also heard that Spaceport Cornwall was developing an educational outreach programme which is going out to schools, colleges and the university in Cornwall.

A public information day about Spaceport Cornwall is set to be held this Thursday (November 7) from 2pm to 6pm at Mawgan Porth Village Hall.

Cornwall Council is due to meet on November 26 when it is expected to debate and decide on the Spaceport Cornwall funding.