The United Kingdom successfully outbid other investors at auction with a $500 million investment on satellite broadband operator OneWeb.
According to a report from the Express, Britain's investment gives it control over OneWeb with 45% shares of the company. Bharti Global, founded by Indian telecoms billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal will control another 45% of the company.
OneWeb business secretary Alok Sharma said the U.K. would gain from this investment. "Our access to a global fleet of satellites has the potential to connect millions of people worldwide to broadband... and the deal presents the opportunity to further develop our strong advanced manufacturing base right here in the U.K.," Sharma said.
The U.K.'s first spaceport, Spaceport Cornwall, is under development as it sets to launch spacecraft for the first time in 2021 or 2022.
Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit supports its construction as it prepares to take small satellites into space. However, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart foresees the Spaceport Cornwall to carry people into space.
Earlier this year, he confidently predicted the success of the spaceport as the market has shown the demand for "many small satellites launches" in the past.
"I can see a time when there is easily 50 launches in a year," Hart told the Express. "We now have the ability to make small satellites do tremendous work that used to take a satellite the size of a school bus," he said adding that will "change the whole business calculation."
