{"id":884410,"date":"2026-09-08T12:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T12:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884410\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T12:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T12:02:18","slug":"uk-government-invests-30m-in-shetland-spaceport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/884410\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government invests \u00a330m in Shetland spaceport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Two German companies have signed launch agreements with the spaceport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) is working towards its first vertical orbital test flight from UK soil. In August, SaxaVord <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cj4kqkxdxkdo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">paused plans<\/a> for a test launch after RFA said it had &#8220;encountered an issue&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A five-week &#8220;launch window&#8221; had been due to begin, with temporary traffic restrictions introduced in the event of a flight attempt. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A second company, HyImpulse Technologies GmbH (HyImpulse), plans the second flight of its SR75 suborbital launch vehicle from Shetland this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The German firm recently secured investment of more than \u20ac50m (\u00a343m).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Derek Harris, head of programmes at Space Scotland, said he was not concerned about the timescale of the launch, adding that the \u00a330m investment was a &#8220;good starter&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The technology is difficult to master but you would prefer it to be there and be reliable so if the timescale slips into next year, I do not see that as a failure,&#8221; he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/m00315t2\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I see that as a very well-maintained programme to make sure health and safety and reliability are at the forefront.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Harris said rain and storms could also impact the process and it was important to remain open minded.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added: &#8220;It will take time and a lot of money but once it launches, the benefits it unlocks for Scotland and the UK will be amazing.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two German companies have signed launch agreements with the spaceport. Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) is working towards its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-884410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}