Vertical launch spaceport planned for Scotland with first flights in early 2020s
16 Jul 2018 Hamish Johnston
Going up: artist's impression of the spaceport planned for Sutherland. (Courtesy: Perfect Circle PV)
The UK’s first “spaceport” for the “vertical” launch of spacecraft will be built on the A’Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland on the north coast of Scotland. The Highlands and Islands Enterprise(HIE) of Scotland will pay £9.8m towards the initial development of the facility, which could be operational in the early 2020s. A further £5m for the project is expected to come from industry and an additional £2.5m will be stumped-up by the UK Space Agency from an existing £50m fund. Money from that same fund will also be available to airports vying to become the country’s first “horizontal” launch facility.
Despite having a thriving satellite manufacturing industry, the UK currently has no launch facilities for spacecraft. A vertical launch involves a rocket blasting off from a launchpad, with the UK Space Agency saying that northern Scotland is the best place in the UK to reach popular satellite orbits using vertically launched rockets.
“Fantastic opportunity”
Covering much of northern and western Scotland, HIE is an agency of the Scottish government that aims to create and grow business opportunities in what is a remote and sparsely populated part of the UK. “The decision to support the UK’s first spaceport in Sutherland is tremendous news for our region and for Scotland as a whole,” says HIE chief executive Charlotte Wright. “The international space sector is growing and we want to ensure the region is ready to reap the economic benefits that will be generated from this fantastic opportunity.”
The UK Space Agency has also announced a £2m fund for the further investigation of building a horizontal launch facility – essentially an airport for jet aircraft that carry rockets aloft, where they are then fired into space. There are currently several locations in the UK vying to host a horizontal facility including Cornwall Airport Newquay, Glasgow Prestwick Airport and Llanbedr Airport in Wales.
Cornwall Airport Newquay got a boost yesterday when the horizontal launch company Virgin Orbit announced that it will run missions from the airport by 2021. The launches will use a modified Boening 747-400 aircraft, which will deploy Virgin’s LauncherOne rocket at an altitude of about 10 km.
Lack of facilities
In November 2017 the UK Space Agency addressed the nation’s lack of launch facilities by promising to spend £50m on what is now called the UK Spaceflight Programme.READ MORE
According to the agency’s chief executive Graham Turnock, the satellite industry faces “significant barriers to growth”. “The global shortage of dedicated small satellite launches is one such barrier that the UK is in a strong position to translate into an opportunity.” Indeed, the agency estimates that launching commercial satellites could garner £3.8bn for UK spaceports in the decade 2021-30.
Read more about industrial opportunities in space in our special collection “The business of space“.
1/10/2018 from physicsworld.com
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