The UK’s first vertical spaceport has been given the green light to launch rockets next year.
Industry regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said it was an ‘era defining moment’ for the £17.5bn UK space sector.
SaxaVord would be the first fully licensed spaceport in Western Europe to be able to launch vertically into orbit. The site – a former RAF radar station – would be permitted to launch 30 rockets per year to take satellites into space.
SaxaVord, which is on the north coast of Unst in Scotland’s Shetland Islands, is expected to launch rockets in 2024. The first licensed spaceport was in Cornwall, but it launches rockets horizontally carried by an aircraft.
CAA space regulation director Tim Johnson said: ‘This marks a beginning of a new chapter for UK space.’
The future: CGI depiction of a rocket launch at SaxaVord
And Frank Strang, boss of SaxaVord Spaceport, said it was a ‘historic’ moment and places the UK ‘firmly at the leading edge of the European and global space economy’.
It comes as the UK Space Agency last week announced a further £6.7m of funding for Scottish spaceport projects.
