Virgin Orbit reveals new details of Spaceport Wellcamp project outside Toowoomba

Richard Branson’s company Virgin Orbit has revealed how its new Toowoomba spaceport could create hundreds of jobs and inject millions into the region. Read about the new details here.

Toowoomba is set to shoot for the stars after billion-dollar small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit announced Wagner Corporation’s Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport as the location for its next satellite launch site and spaceport. Picture supplied

An Australia-first spaceport to be established just outside Toowoomba could inject hundreds of millions into the region’s economy and become the catalyst for a burgeoning aerospace market.

Virgin Orbit has revealed more details about its upcoming plans at Wellcamp Airport, two months after the massive company revealed Toowoomba as its next satellite launch site — one of just three in the world right now.

The spaceport, which differs from other companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX, would launch liquid-fuelled rockets from a Boeing 747 rather than from the ground.

The company wants to hold between four and six launches per year.

Toowoomba's Wellcamp Airport is set to become the latest launch site for Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit. Picture: Supplied.

VO’s government operations vice-president Janice Starzyk, who was a keynote speaker this week at the Regional Australia Institute’s Rising Regions conference in Toowoomba, said the company wanted to run a demonstration launch by 2024.

“Our system provides a level of flexibility, responsiveness, and mobility that has been a goal of both government and industry for decades but has never been put into practice,” she told The Chronicle.

“The advantages of an air-launched system brings flexibility to launch critical missions, fewer launch restrictions, access to a greater range of orbits, and weather resistance that cannot be matched by ground-launched systems.”

Virgin Orbit's vice-president of government operations Janice Starzyk.

While exact estimates haven’t been completed yet for the spaceport’s value, Ms Starzyk said Virgin Orbit’s UK project in Cornwall offered a good comparison.

“Our experience at Spaceport Cornwall could serves as a potentially useful anecdote,” she said.

“Specifically, Spaceport Cornwall anticipates that launch activities will deliver 150 direct jobs by 2025, adding over 200m British Pounds ($355m AUD) in gross value added to Cornwall’s economy.

“We are working very closely with Wagner Corporation, federal, and local government entities to make sure that all regulatory and licensing procedures are followed, and are beginning to understand the various requirements.”

Virgin Orbit will join Boeing inside the new Wellcamp Airport defence and aerospace precinct, which has been a long-term vision of the Wagner family.

Ms Starzyk said the creation of the spaceport could create a “space cluster” of companies looking to use Toowoomba for operations.

“Wagner Corporation’s goals for the Wellcamp Business Park are perfectly aligned with and will benefit from the creation of a technology and space incubator that will evolves from a spaceport,” she said.

“Virgin Orbit’s launch activities will have both a direct and indirect impact on the region.

“An array of infrastructure that could be built and housed in Toowoomba includes ground support equipment for use during launches, a multi-use processing facility for satellite payload and vehicle integration, and a dedicated aircraft that could be used for launch and remote sensing.

“The activities themselves will drive commercial impact on regional employment, services and commodities.

“In addition, the spaceport activities will be a catalyst to create a new space cluster in Toowoomba, attracting new companies across the space industry value chain, activities, academic programs and inspiration to the local community.”