In what’s been hailed as a major boost for plans to build a spaceport in the Shetland Isles, US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin has been granted approval to transfer its UK satellite launch operations from the Sutherland Space centre to the planned Shetland Space Centre at Lamba Ness on the isle of Unst.
As well creating hundreds of jobs in the region, the development – part of the UK government’s LaunchUK spaceflight programme – is expected to strengthen the UK’s position as European small satellite launch destination of choice
Lockheed Martin to assist in UK vertical launch spaceport
Lockheed Martin is now in discussions with a preferred partner to provide launch services for its so-called UK Pathfinder Launch programme.
Commenting on the move Nik Smith, UK Country Executive at Lockheed Martin said: “The transfer of our UK spaceflight operations to Shetland will not only broaden launch options available in the UK, but also ensure the economic benefits of these endeavours are felt more widely.”
Ivan McKee, Scottish Government Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation added: “The transfer of Lockheed Martin’s UK pathfinder satellite launch to Shetland Space Centre will enhance Scotland’s existing vertical launch capability and enable us to target a wider market base through a complementary offer across multiple spaceports.”
UK government science minister Amanda Solloway added that the boost for the new space centre will help advance UK ambitions to become a European centre for satellite launches.
“We want the UK to be the best place in Europe to launch satellites, attracting innovative businesses from all over the world and creating hundreds of high-skilled jobs,” she said.
The UK Space Agency will also continue to fully support Space Hub Sutherland through grant funding to Highlands and Islands Enterprise to develop the spaceport infrastructure, and to UK-based launch partner, Orbex, to prepare its Prime rocket to launch from the site in 2022.
An economic assessment of the Spaceport Sutherland site reported in 2019 that the site is due to create over 60 high-skilled jobs in Sutherland and Caithness, and 250 jobs in the wider area. In 2019, Orbex opened a rocket design and manufacturing facility in Forres, near Inverness, which is anticipated to bring 130 highly-skilled jobs to the region.
I wonder if an environmental impact study has been done before this decision was taken? Unst has some of the UK’s most remote and important nature reserves for species seen pretty much nowhere else … though I suspect – with the ever increasing interest in blasting thousands of rockets into space – this counts for little? Also I’d put money on this having more than a distant link with the Shetland Isles’ recent statement about wanting independence from Scotland?? Trying to keeping the Highlands and Islands happy perhaps … or is this just my old age cynicism showing again?
Good point. The local ‘consultation’ stage and environmental impact study haven’t either finished or even been started but decisions have apparently already been made. Spells the end for the puffins and nearby Hermaness Nature Reserve I should imagine.
I suspect Concerned Environmentalist is spot-on. Healthy cynicism is no bad thing.
Has lockheed been to the Shetland Isles? A light wind disrupts missions from Florida, so how many aborted takeoffs do they plan from here?
Dave M, the average wind speeds vary from 8 to15 MPH up to gale force 12 and can be quite calm. Remember any winds/storms come from across the Atlantic via the gulf streams weather patterns [winds, rains, snow, fogs, etc.]
The Florida Cape winds are much lower but do cause delays or aborts… made worse by climate change [which no one wants to speak about. So why spend billions of pounds creating a launch system in the Shetlands and organizing jobs, manufacturing when Lockheed can just pack up and leave the program, as they are a foreign entityand have to pay their shareholders!
I agree with “Concerned Environmentalist” and Dave Murphy one hundred percent. I frequently wonder if any of these major projects are ever thought through properly. It is ” short termism” yet again. And how are all these hundreds of workers to get there? more planes & helicopters and more fossil fuels?
Used to fly from Aberdeen to Unst fixed wing; then helicopter offshore to the Ninian field. Bleak remote place., ideal for launching rockets. The portacabins at the airfield accommodated the infamous ‘Unst Tea Lady’
Good luck with that.
Isn’t this going the wrong way? I though that it was easier to launch from the equator, where the earth’s rotation gives you a boost. Shetland seems a long way north to me.
The idea of using the Earth’s rotational velocity to give a boost only applies for those orbits (such as geostationary) which require such a direction; for many other orbits (eg Polar or LEO) the Earth’s rotational velocity is a hindrance and needs to be counteracted – either by fuel or being launched from a point where that velocity is reduced (eg Shetland)