But the UK’s hopes have plenty of hurdles to overcome and investors are now even less forgiving than they were when Virgin Orbit was preparing to launch. Funding has dried up as interest rates have soared.

“The market has been used to free money for 15 years,” says one industry source.

Smaller spaceports and start-ups, like those planning launches from Britain, are “getting squeezed”, the source adds, while Elon Musk’s dominant SpaceX rocket company threatens to “strangle them all”.

Originally planned for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, Virgin Orbit’s launch was repeatedly delayed. The failed mission eventually took off from Spaceport Cornwall – Britain’s first spaceport. 

The rocket launched from under the wing of a Boeing 747, which was then intended to blast into space. However, the mission suffered an anomaly shortly into its flight, dooming it to failure.

The delays and ultimate failure of the mission frustrated many in the sector. One industry executive even told MPs the UK was now seen as “toxic” for rocket launches.

Cornwall will not play host to the UK’s next mission, with a number of other sites vying to be the first.

The leading candidates are Saxavord, a spaceport on Unst in the Shetland Islands, and a Scottish launch base at Sutherland Spaceport.

On Shetland, construction work is well underway at Saxavord. This remote, northerly corner of the UK now hopes to host Britain’s first orbital mission.

“Our licence should allow us to launch 30 missions per year,” says Frank Strang, chief executive of Saxavord.

Strang, who bought the site 15 years ago with his wife Debbie, hopes that Shetland will host the first “vertical” space launch mission in Europe.

He claims Saxavord is “years ahead of [rivals] in our development”. A 12-metre high launch stool has been constructed to support the launch of future rockets.