After several years of announcements, will 2022 mark the turning point for Scottish spaceports? SaxaVord has just received the green light from the authorities and could eventually accommodate at least three different rockets, including that of the French from Venture Orbital! But other sites are also in preparation.
Direction ? Due north…
Rockets in Scotland
The Lamba Ness peninsula, nestled in the Shetland Islands, is not regularly featured in the press. The site is picturesque with its indented coast, its large meadows and its historic site housing an old Royal Air Force radar (RAF Skaw), deactivated shortly after the Second World War. But all of that should soon change, as the site will soon be known as the SaxaVord Space Center.
A private initiative (although supported by the public authorities), SaxaVord received the green light from the local authorities a few days ago: unless the Scottish Parliament explicitly opposes the project before the beginning of April, the “spaceport” should see the day. SaxaVord’s supporters are focusing in particular on the economic benefits, with an injection of 100 million pounds over 5 years, around 170 local jobs… and three launch areas. Obviously, given the inclination of the site with respect to the Equator, the take-offs will be oriented towards the north, for polar orbits.
And one, and two, and three…
These are indeed three companies in the global NewSpace sector who wish to operate their launchers from Shetland, despite their relative inexperience.
The first, and most local, is Skyrora and its Skyrora-XL rocket. The latter should be able to carry satellites of 315 kg to low orbit, and the company announces for the moment that it is aiming for the end of 2022 for its inaugural launch. The second is ABL Space, an American company formed by veterans of SpaceX and Blue Origin, which has been announcing for some quarters already the take-off ” imminent of its RS-1 rocket from the United States. A shot is already listed from the SaxaVord site for ABL, with six small satellites provided by Lockheed Martin.
Finally, the 1er March, the French start-up VOS (Venture Orbital Space, located in Reims) announced its partnership with the Scots. The company is aiming for takeoffs of its Zéphyr rocket on site from 2024, with a regular launch rate.
What projects will materialize?
Scotland, an orbiting paradise? We can ask ourselves the question. The Sutherland Spaceport, for its part, already received the sesame last year for the construction of its facilities, including a first launch pad in the service of the English company Orbex and its Prime rocket… which is also waiting to have the launch authorizations for the end of 2022.
Finally, we can emphasize that it does not stop in the north: Virgin Orbit has already announced the arrival of its 747 plane, carrying the LauncherOne rocket, in the summer of 2022 at the Cornwall Space Center (Spaceport Cornwall), located in Wales, for a first launch “ dropped outside the United States.
On the same subject :
The Psyche probe tests its large solar panels before liftoff in August
Source: NASA
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