Flights are hands down the worst part of any vacation. From tight spaces to turbulent water, they're enough to put anyone off traveling altogether. Many people want to explore every inch of the world, but flights to faraway destinations can be long and tiring. For example, for us Brits, flying to the US can take up to 12 hours, while reaching Australia can take a full 24 hours. But what if I said you could fly from the UK to Australia in 90 minutes? With the latest technological advancements, this isn't as unrealistic as it seems.
Reports began to emerge at the end of June 2019 about the development of “spaceports” in Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands. According to The Daily Telegraph , these ports "could soon send tourists into orbit" while "Virgin Galactic is most likely to send tourists beyond the Earth's atmosphere."
However, British astronaut Tim Peake revealed another exciting possibility when talking about the spaceport: "If you extend Virgin Galactic's suborbital flight principles and improve the vehicles and increase their durability, you You can fly from London to Sydney in an hour, half in suborbital," he told The Daily Telegraph.
Imagine how glorious it would be to travel less than 10,000 miles in just an hour and a half. If only Marty McFly could see us now.
Sadly, though, we may have to wait a long time for this dream to become a reality. As Cornwall Spaceport general manager Miles Carden told CornwallLive: "Maybe one day there will be a flight to Sydney in less than two hours, but that's decades away "Maybe 20 years from now," he continued. "What do we do?" "Newquay is interested in having all the infrastructure and legislation to be a safe spaceport for horizontal launches."
In July 2018, Virgin Orbit, a company within the Virgin Group that plans to provide launch services for small satellites, selected Cornwall Spaceport as the launch site for its Cosmic Girl aircraft. As Virgin explained at the time, "Cosmic Girl will carry a LauncherOne rocket under its wing to a launch site over the Atlantic Ocean and release the rocket at an altitude of approximately 35,000 feet to continue flying into space to deliver a satellite to Earth. Orbital." Virgin also wrote: "The Cornwall Spaceport will provide California-based Virgin Orbit with a strategic location in Western Europe and make a significant contribution to Cornwall's ambitions to create a £1 billion space economy. The recent announcement about space tourism flights appears to be another step towards creating a “space economy” as part of the UK Industrial Strategy.
As well as his comments about London to Sydney, Peake also told The Daily Telegraph it was "extremely important" that the UK takes the lead in the global space race. He continued:
"It's a very exciting time right now. Space tourism may get some criticism as a rich man's sport, but that's where a lot of things in life started, that's where the aviation industry started. It might be considered expensive stupidity today. Behavior can actually become a very efficient form of transportation in the future.”
If this piques your interest, you're not alone, as Virgin's suborbital flights are already getting a lot of attention.
According to the Guardian , More than 600 people have put down deposits for Virgin Orbit flights, including Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio. According to reports, tickets to get a seat on the ship will cost $250,000 (approximately £200,000). I think it's time to start saving.
