By Peter Tremayne

Cornwall’s spaceport bosses are this week doing what they do best – handing out business cards and smiling – at the Farnborough airshow.

This year’s presence, at stand 4310, might be the last.  The spaceport’s two-year £510,000 subsidy runs out in May.

With no rockets to launch, and no significant alternative sources of revenue, the spaceport will continue to drain the public purse for the foreseeable future.

Cornwall Council has been sending a team to Farnborough since 2018.  The first trip, which saw former council leader Adam Paynter promoting Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit company, cost Cornwall’s taxpayers £13,275.

By 2022 the cost had risen to £40,000.

The spaceport venture seeks out and attends conferences and exhibitions around the world all the time.  But no-one seems to want to launch their rockets from Newquay.

Cornwall’s political parties must decide if they want to approach next May’s council elections promising to continue taxpayer funding – or if they will have the courage to pull the plug.

The “Cornwall Space Cluster” will be shaking hands at Farnborough until Friday.

Space Engine Systems is at Farnborough, seeking development to develop its "hypersonic" aircraft

Other businesses associated the spaceport include Space Engine Systems, which is promising flights to the Moon, from Newquay, next year.

The National Drone Hub, based at Predannick airfield near Helston, offers a wide range of test facilities.

Goonhilly Earth Station is also represented, as is Bluefruit, a spaceport-based software company.

Another huge uncertainty facing the spaceport is its future in any world in which Newquay Airport has been privatised.  County Hall has set a deadline of 31st December for transferring the airport to private ownership.

petertremayne@cornwallreports.co.uk