In June 2019, the UK government and Cornwall Council announced they were prepared to invest up to £20M into the airport to create a "Spaceport Cornwall" as a base for Virgin Orbit. The system would launch satellite carrying rockets to space from under the wing of a converted Virgin Atlantic jumbo jet by the early 2020s dependent on the business case put forward. On 5 November 2019, UK Space Agency announced that it will provide £7.35M to establish Virgin Orbit operations at Spaceport Cornwall.