{"id":37916,"date":"2019-09-04T22:38:34","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T14:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/uk-spaceport-at-sutherland-enters-public-consultation-phase\/"},"modified":"2019-09-04T22:38:34","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T14:38:34","slug":"uk-spaceport-at-sutherland-enters-public-consultation-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/uk-spaceport-at-sutherland-enters-public-consultation-phase\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Spaceport at Sutherland enters public consultation phase"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The UK\u2019s new domestic spaceport in the Scottish Highlands has moved into a public consultation phase. Space Hub Sutherland is hoping to launch up to 10 small sat missions per year.<\/p>\n<p>Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which is backing the \u00a317.3m project to design and build Space Hub Sutherland, lodged a proposal of application notice with the Highland Council on Wednesday, a&nbsp;notice that effectively triggers the start of a process that will lead to a formal application for planning consent being submitted to the local authority at the end of December.<\/p>\n<p>The news comes a month after the Melness Crofters Estate \u2013 which owns the land on the Moine Peninsula \u2013 agreed to a lease to HIE for the development of the area \u2013 once planning permission has been secured. The lease option agreement with HIE officially came into effect on 1 August 2019.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>UKSA Forum Section<\/li>\n<li>Commercial Space Flight General<\/li>\n<li>L2 Master&nbsp;Section<\/li>\n<li>Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As part of pre-planning consultation, HIE is organizing public events with the local community in October and November.<\/p>\n<p>Roy Kirk, HIE\u2019s Space Hub Sutherland project director, said he hoped many local people would take up the opportunity to find out more and offer valuable feedback on the proposals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpace Hub Sutherland is now approaching a very exciting stage where we will shortly be able to start presenting the detail of our plans to stakeholders, including people who live in the vicinity of the launch site,\u201d noted Mr. Kirk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been holding informal drop-in sessions at different locations for a few months now and delivering presentations to community groups and business organizations, which have been well-received.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really important for local people to have a chance to find out what the spaceport will mean for the area, and that we listen to their views to help shape our planning application.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63064\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63064\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-40-21-231.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1594\" height=\"923\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-40-21-231.jpg 1594w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-40-21-231-350x203.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-40-21-231-604x350.jpg 604w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-40-21-231-768x445.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-40-21-231-1170x677.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1594px) 100vw, 1594px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-63064\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perfect Circle (with annotations via the Daily Mail) render of the spaceport<\/p>\n<p>HIE has approved \u00a39.8m to develop Space Hub Sutherland, and the UK Space Agency has awarded \u00a32.5m.&nbsp; A further \u00a35m is being sought from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.<\/p>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>UKSA has also awarded grants to two companies that plan to launch satellites from Sutherland \u2013 Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Orbex, which has already established a manufacturing facility in the Moray town of Forres.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-63063\" class=\"size-full wp-image-63063\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-38-04-778.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1005\" height=\"652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-38-04-778.jpg 1005w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-38-04-778-350x227.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-38-04-778-539x350.jpg 539w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/NSF-2019-09-04-18-38-04-778-768x498.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1005px) 100vw, 1005px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-63063\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lockheed Martin render of a launch from Sutherland<\/p>\n<p>The first launch from the launch site is set to take place in 2021, with Orbex\u2019s Prime rocket set for a maiden flight carrying an experimental payload from UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL). Orbex has also confirmed that it will launch an upcoming satellite in SSTL\u2019s line of demonstrators by 2023.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the initial launch contracts, Orbex stated earlier this year that Swiss-based Astrocast SA selected Orbex to launch multiple nanosatellites for the development of a planet-wide Internet of Things (IoT) network.<\/p>\n<p>Prime is the first commercial rocket engine designed to work with biopropane, a clean-burning, renewable fuel source that cuts carbon emissions by 90 percent compared to fossil hydrocarbon fuels, supplied by Orbex\u2019s new exclusive BioLPG fuel partner Calor.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60190\" class=\"size-full wp-image-60190\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/201907-181731.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1115\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/201907-181731.jpg 1115w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/201907-181731-350x178.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/201907-181731-630x321.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/201907-181731-768x391.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1115px) 100vw, 1115px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-60190\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prime during launch \u2013 via Orbex<\/p>\n<p>Prime sports a specially-formulated lightweight carbon fiber and aluminum composite \u2013 and includes the world\u2019s largest 3-D printed rocket engine.<\/p>\n<p>With the UK Space sector showing continued growth, a domestic launch site was always the next obvious step. The increasing demand for small sat launches also provides a viable business opportunity for the class of rocket that will launch from Sutherland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a hugely ambitious project, not only for Sutherland but for the whole of the UK,\u201d added Mr. Kirk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe British space sector is in a phase of expansion at present and the Highlands and Islands have the natural assets, skills base and supply chain expertise to capitalize on the huge opportunity this presents.<\/p>\n<p>An economic impact assessment commissioned by HIE in 2018 concluded that the project could generate around 400 jobs across the Highlands and Islands, including 40 or so skilled positions at the space hub itself.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to a launch pad complex, the spaceport will include an operations and control center, launch towers, an assembly building, an antenna farm, access roads, car parking and security fencing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK\u2019s new domestic spaceport in the Scottish Highlands has moved into a public consultation phase. Space Hub Sutherland is hoping to launch up to 10 small sat missions per year. Development agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which is backing the \u00a317.3m project to design and build Space Hub Sutherland, lodged a proposal of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1616,1617,1619,6217],"class_list":["post-37916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-orbex","tag-prime","tag-sutherland","tag-uksa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}