SPACE minister Chris Skidmore was in Cornwall on Friday morning to hear all about the plans for Spaceport Cornwall which he said was “an incredibly exciting proposal”.

The science and space minister was at Newquay Cornwall Airport as a result of an invitation from St Austell and Newquay MP Steve Double.

Mr Skidmore attended a round table discussion about the plans which had representatives from a number of companies and organisations involved in the spaceport, including Virgin Orbit, which has signed an agreement to launch small satellites from the spaceport.

Under the plans Spaceport Cornwall would operate as a horizontal launch site initially to launch satellites into space.

Mr Skidmore heard how Spaceport Cornwall could help the UK’s aim of capturing £40 billion of the global space market by 2030.

The minister said: “I have been really keen to progress this proposal. When it comes to horizontal launch this could be the first site in Europe. It is an incredibly exciting proposal.

“I have had meetings at Westminster with Virgin Orbit, the LEP and the council, all thanks to Steve Double, in order to look at the details and we have the UK Space Agency which is looking at the financial proposals and package.

“We hope to make a decision soon on this and I am incredibly optimistic. This is a huge opportunity for Cornwall.”

The Government announced this week that it was inviting bids for money from the £2 million Horizontal Spaceport Development Fund which is a first strand of money in support of the industry and is for research programmes.

Mr Skidmore said it was part of a wider £50m fund that was announced last year but the majority of which went towards supporting plans for a vertical launch spaceport in Scotland.

The minister said today that the £2m would not be the last of the Government’s financial support for horizontal launch sites.

Mr Double said he had been encouraged by the minister’s visit and said he would continue to press the Government to support Spaceport Cornwall.

He said: “I think the minister has got a very clear message today about the enthusiasm and commitment there is across the board in Cornwall for the spaceport and what we have to offer here at the airport.

“We have the facilities, the land for development and ideally placed to be the location for the first UK horizontal launch spaceport.”

Mr Double said he would be backing Spaceport Cornwall’s bid for money from the Government fund and would be pressing for more to be made available.

“The minister is very much part of that and understanding why we need that money and the potential of the Government backing the spaceport here.

“It is a huge opportunity for Cornwall not just economically but for investment and job creation.

“The thing I am really excited about is the inspiration it gives to our young people. We saw this week students from Newquay Treviglas winning a national space competition. In that competition there were more entries from Cornwall than anywhere else in the country.

“There is real enthusiasm here for this project and in terms of inspiring our young people to take STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects and then become engineers, technicians or in IT is immeasurable.”

Patrick McCall, senior managing director at Virgin and chairman of the board of Virgin Orbit, also attended today’s visit and said the company was keen to start launch from Cornwall as soon as possible.

He said: “The minister saw that there is a really good level of support and togetherness about Spaceport Cornwall and the opportunities it presents.

“Cornwall first realised five years ago about the potential there was here to be a spaceport – there is good news and bad news with that in that over the last few months lots of other countries have also said they could host spaceports.

“Cornwall started the race sooner than anyone else, but we hope that Cornwall also gets to be the first to launch and not get left behind.”

Mr McCall described the opportunities that could be provided by Spaceport Cornwall as “unthinkable”, not just in giving people the chance to work in the space industry but also in the applications which will be possible thanks to small satellite launches from Cornwall.

He said the company was also very keen to do outreach and education work and was already doing some of that in the UK.

But he added: “The Government has got to commit and we need to through a process of regulation. There needs to be a bit of money and then we are off and we can start the process.”