{"id":459156,"date":"2026-03-05T16:10:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459156\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:10:41","slug":"the-uk-will-invest-20-million-to-accelerate-spaceport-development-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459156\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK Will Invest \u00a320 Million to Accelerate Spaceport Development in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/The-UK-Will-Invest-20-Million-to-Accelerate-Spaceport-Development-in-Scotland.webp.webp\" alt=\"The UK's new \u00a3500 million space sector spending package includes \u00a320 million to develop spaceport infrastructure in Scotland.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6188 lazyload\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 800px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 800\/500;\"\/>Credit: RFA<\/p>\n<p>The United Kingdom has announced a new \u00a3500 million spending package to support its space sector, including \u00a320 million to support the development of spaceport infrastructure in Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>During a 4 March address at Space-Comm Expo 2026, Liz Lloyd, the country\u2019s Minister for the Digital Economy, announced the new spending package. The largest commitments included in the package were \u00a3105 million to develop civil capabilities for in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, \u00a385 million to develop the National Space Operations Centre, and \u00a380 million to deliver the Connectivity in Low Earth Orbit programme.<\/p>\n<p>On its investment in launch, Lloyd explained that in the country\u2019s pursuit of \u201cassured access to space,\u201d it planned to focus on \u201caccelerating launch from Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to make funding available for the capabilities, skills, and infrastructure that enable the launch sector to thrive, and so I can announce \u00a320 million to accelerate spaceport infrastructure development in Scotland,\u201d said Lloyd.<\/p>\n<p>Scotland is home to two spaceport projects, the most prominent of which is SaxaVord Spaceport on the island of Unst off the country\u2019s northern coast. The spaceport already features a completed launch pad, the infrastructure to support a launch, and a spaceport licence from the country\u2019s Civil Aviation Authority. Germany\u2019s Rocket Factory Augsburg is currently in the process of preparing to launch the inaugural flight of its RFA ONE rocket from the spaceport later this year.<\/p>\n<p>SaxaVord has previously received financial support from the government, which committed \u00a310 million as part of its Spring Budget in 2024. According to the budget, the funding was to support the goal of becoming the first to launch a satellite into orbit from the European mainland and become a \u201cleading small satellite launch destination by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The other, less well-developed spaceport project is Sutherland, located on the northern tip of Scotland. The spaceport was expected to be the home base of Orbex, but its construction was \u201cpaused\u201d in December 2024, with the company redirecting funding to the development of its Proxima rocket. With the company <a href=\"https:\/\/europeanspaceflight.com\/orbex-fails-after-planned-purchase-falls-through\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appointing administrators and laying off its workforce<\/a>, the pause has become an abandonment.<\/p>\n<p>On Orbex, Lloyd explained that while the government is \u201cdisappointed,\u201d the company\u2019s failure did not end its \u201cambitions for launch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In late February, the Melness Crofters Estate, the organisation that owns the land leased to Orbex for the construction of the spaceport, announced that it was seeking new partners to deliver the spaceport, with UK-based launch startup Skyrora expressing interest in taking over the lease earlier that same month.<\/p>\n<p>The Sutherland project has also previously received funding from the UK government, receiving \u00a32.5 million in 2018. It also received \u00a33 million from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority in 2023 and a combined \u00a39 million from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Government.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the \u00a320 million to support the development of spaceport infrastructure in Scotland, the UK still has \u20ac112.30 million in unallocated funding under the European Launcher Challenge. With Orbex now gone, the most likely recipient of the remaining funding is Germany\u2019s Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), to which the country committed an initial \u20ac10 million as part of the challenge. However, it\u2019s unlikely that the country would be willing to commit the full \u20ac112.30 million to RFA without assurances of a significant increase in the company\u2019s footprint in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>        Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n<p>Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: RFA The United Kingdom has announced a new \u00a3500 million spending package to support its space sector,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[57907,90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-459156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-saxavord-spaceport","tag-science","tag-space","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}