Branson's Virgin Group has reportedly been looking to enlist Spaceport Cornwall, an airport in the southwestern town of Newquay, England, as the launch facility for Virgin Galactic, which plans to send tourists into suborbital space for 90-minute trips. Cornwall is already a launch partner for Branson's other space venture, Virgin Orbit, which sends satellites into Earth's orbit by attaching a small rocket to a modified Boeing 747 aircraft.

But the spaceport doesn't seem interested. At a meeting this week, leaders of the Spaceport Cornwall Council called the idea of facilitating space tourism "an abundant waste of money" and "a wrong message" to local residents, according to the British local newspaper The Falmouth Packet.

"Cornwall Council will not be taking forward any space tourism operation from the airport," said council leader Julian German.