Spaceport on Shetland Islands will be ready for launch by July, MPs told

The spaceport at the northernmost tip of the UK will be ready for satellite launches by July, MPs have been told.

A number of companies plan to use SaxaVord Spaceport, on Unst in the Shetland Islands, as a launch site for commercial rockets.

Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), from Germany, is thought to have the most advanced plans and it was officially licensed for spaceflight by the regulator last month.

Orbex, based in Forres in north-east Scotland, recently announced it will switch its first launch from Sutherland Spaceport to SaxaVord. It hopes to blast off its “Prime” rocket for the first time towards the end of this year.

On Wednesday, Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee heard from a number of figures in the space industry who hope to tap into a lucrative global market for small satellite launches.

German company RFA is thought to have the most advanced plans for launches (Rocket Factory Augsburg/PA). PA Media

Scott Hammond, deputy chief executive of SaxaVord, said work is ongoing on the integration hangar where rocket stages will be joined together and satellites mated to the vehicles.

He told the MPs they are “absolutely” planning on a launch this year, adding staff are now going through a detailed training process.

Mr Hammond said: “Our aim is to have all of that done by July 1. After which, the second part of the year, we are now ready for launch.”

He compared SaxaVord to the UK’s Cape Canaveral, stressing there is competition from Norway’s Andoya Spaceport.

Quizzed on whether SaxaVord needs more Government financial support, he said: “Yes and no, we would quite happily take it, if we don’t get it we will have to go out and get extra money and work very hard.”

He urged the MoD not to rely on Elon Musk’s SpaceX for launches, saying the US Space Force has “effectively booked all of the launches from the States until 2030 – so if we want to get UK satellites up there, we’re going to have to find another way of doing it”.

Work on Sutherland Spaceport has been paused (Michal Wachucik/Abermedia/Orbex/PA) PA Media

Phil Chambers, chief executive of Orbex, was asked about his company’s decision to pause work at the Sutherland Spaceport site.

Politicians representing the Highlands have been disappointed at the decision, noting Sutherland Spaceport has received support from the regional development agency.

Mr Chambers said it was a purely commercial decision, as completing work at the site near Tongue would have cost £15 million and the company had not raised as much money as hoped.

However he suggested Orbex could restart work at Sutherland if it needs more launch capacity by 2028, adding: “It’s not a decision we took lightly and not one that is easy to chop and change.

“We have a new plan now, which is to do the first 10 launches a year from SaxaVord and then look for the additional capacity in Sutherland.”

He added that objections from Anders Holch Povlsen, Scotland’s richest man and an investor in SaxaVord Spaceport, had not prevented Sutherland from receiving planning permission.

SaxaVord is located on Unst in the Shetland Islands (SaxaVord/PA) PA Media

Alan Thompson, head of government affairs at Skyrora, said his company aims to carry out a suborbital rocket launch from SaxaVord later this year.

He said Skyrora has experienced delays from the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and had carried out its first test launch from Iceland as “we got tired of waiting”.

Jorn Spurmann, chief commercial officer of RFA, spoke about the tests his company is carrying out to prepare for the first flight.

An engine test at SaxaVord in August last year resulted in the first stage of its rocket exploding, which Mr Spurmann described as a “big and wonderful image” which had resulted in “a lot of learning”.