By Peter Tremayne

Construction of the new Newquay Aviation Centre – due to be leased to the Spaceport next year - is due to start in June, councillors will hear tomorrow (Thursday.)

The design contract has been awarded to a Hertfordshire-based company, Willmott Dixon. The Aviation Centre will occupy 1,700 square metres of new hangar space. In August the government gave the Local Enterprise Partnership £1.25 million to build the new facility, which is due for completion by the end of the year.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit company – the spaceport’s only customer - has promised to start using the publicly-funded Newquay base from “early” next year, which would be one year behind the original scheduled UK take-off.

After several years of delay, Mr Branson finally demonstrated that it is possible to use a horizontally-launched liquid-fuelled rocket motor to reach orbit in January. The first attempt, last year, crashed into the sea.

But Virgin Orbit still appears to have trouble sticking to its promised timetable: a satellite launch for the US Department of Defence, due to take off from Andersen Air Base, Guam, next week has been rescheduled to an unspecified date next month.