How new Scottish spaceports will run like an airport - Amanda Solloway

The 1960s are rightly seen as the golden age of space exploration – the so-called “space race” to reach the cosmos, launch satellites and put a man on the moon. Together, they made mankind’s final frontier seem not so final after all.
An image of the proposed spaceport on UnstAn image of the proposed spaceport on Unst
An image of the proposed spaceport on Unst

The truth is, though, that the last decade has seen advances in space that more than match humanity’s first moon shot.

Though you might not know it, we have been a driving force for these breakthroughs, with companies on UK soil using space and satellites to improve our lives.

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British scientists and businesses have underpinned all sorts of innovative technologies, from reusable rockets, satellite constellations, GPS on every smartphone and climate change monitoring from space. These amazing breakthroughs have turned many of the things that were once science fiction into science fact.

As we enter a commercial space age, the world space sector is unrecognisable from what it was a decade ago.

What was once an academic pursuit made-up of talented academics in university labs, observatories and institutions is now a heavyweight industry made up of pioneering entrepreneurs, businesses of all sizes and high-skilled jobs.

And thanks to the quality of these businesses, the capabilities of our workers and the government’s commitment to making the UK a world-leading space nation, we are at the forefront of the new global space race.

This week we took some big leaps forward in this race, with Lockheed Martin detailing their plans to launch satellites from a spaceport in Scotland, at the Shetland Space Centre on Unst – creating over 600 jobs on the islands and putting Scotland’s space credentials firmly on the world stage.

Some might claim this is far-fetched for a country that does not have a deep history of rocketry or launching satellites into space. But we are unambiguous in our bold ambition to make the UK the first satellite launchpad in northern Europe.

Since we first put a satellite into space in 1962, we have developed one of the most vibrant and dynamic satellite industries in the world, with specialists dotted around the country, from Glasgow to Portsmouth.

From a vantage point hundreds of miles above the Earth’s surface, these satellites give us an invisible helping hand in so many parts of our daily lives – whether its equipping our farmers with data that allows them to be more efficient, making our weather forecasting more accurate or assisting with emergency responses.

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Our fantastic satellite sector has earned its stripes, and now we want to match this might with a commercial launch sector that has a footprint in all corners of the UK.

The government is backing plans for seven sites, including the two in Scotland, with each set to run like an airport, offering companies, large and small, the chance to host launch operations at their spaceport. Crucially, this will lead to the creation of new jobs and will help drive new investment.

And this will not just benefit our brilliant established space companies. We want this to fire the starting gun for new space businesses and for overseas companies to come and base themselves in the UK, bringing jobs of the future to regions that have not always felt the benefits of technological advances of the past.

In the months and years to come, these spaceports will play their part in helping grow our economy and drive our recovery from this pandemic.

George Mueller, the coolly-decisive scientist, engineer and administrator who was given much of the credit for the US reaching the moon in 1969, once said ‘the only question is whether this nation will prevail in space … or whether we will abandon the future to others’.

The UK will not be abandoning the future of spaceflight to others – as our recent endeavours have shown, we aim to be leading it.

Amanda Solloway is the UK Government’s Science Minister

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