The Scottish Space Race
A pair of spaceports are vying to stage the first vertical launch from UK soil
With the first horizontal launch on its way, the race is now on between SaxaVord on Unst in the Shetland Islands, the most northerly point of the UK, and Sutherland on the northwest Scottish coast to stage the UK’s first vertical rocket launch. These two facilities will launch satellites using traditional rockets taking off directly from a launchpad on the ground.
SaxaVord aims to be a multi-use spaceport supporting launches by several operators, but Lockheed Martin is keen to be the first to launch there as part of the UK Space Agency’s Pathfinder launch. It is bringing over a new rocket from the US called RS1, by ABL Space Systems, that can carry payloads up to 1,350kg. The launch will carry up to six CubeSats into low-Earth orbit, deployed by a freeflying Orbital Manoeuvring Vehicle built by Moog, currently in production in Reading.
“They’ve started to pour the concrete [in SaxaVord] and put in the bits of infrastructure needed to support this,” says Nik Smith, regional director for Lockheed Martin UK. “From a space perspective, they’ve got a great location. It’s fantastic for polar orbits where a lot of low-Earth orbit communications satellites will be operating.”
Sutherland Spaceport, on the A’ Mhòine peninsula on the northern coast of the Highlands, offers similar benefits for reaching these orbits. Both Scottish locations also offer remote flight paths that do not traverse populated areas, but rather vast expanses of sea. British rocket company Orbex is planning to launch its rocket vertically from Sutherland, and last November signed a 50-year sub-lease on the spaceport with the development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It plans to launch up to 12 vertical rockets a year from Sutherland to carry satellites to low-Earth orbit.
While the UK Space Agency has invested most in these three spaceports, four other sites have also been under consideration. These include three more in Scotland: North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Spaceport Machrihanish in Argyll, Prestwick Spaceport in South Ayrshire; and Spaceport Snowdonia in Wales.