{"id":77655,"date":"2025-08-19T11:42:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/77655\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T11:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:42:08","slug":"hammond-takes-on-chief-executive-role-at-spaceport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/77655\/","title":{"rendered":"Hammond takes on chief executive role at spaceport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAXAVORD Spaceport has announced that Scott Hammond will be its new chief executive following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2025\/08\/14\/tributes-true-original-frank-strang\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">death of co-founder Frank Strang<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Formerly the deputy CEO, Hammond will take over the running of the company as it prepares to host a first test flight by rocket company RFA from the site at Lamba Ness in Unst.<\/p>\n<p>Debbie Strang, Saxa\u2019s chief operating officer, will take over his role as deputy CEO.<\/p>\n<p>SaxaVord Spaceport CEO Scott Hammond.<\/p>\n<p>Mairi Prior has also been appointed to the board as finance director.<\/p>\n<p>Hammond said: \u201cOf course these are not the circumstances in which I would wish to be taking over \u2013 Frank\u2019s death has come as a huge blow both to myself as a long-standing friend and colleague and to everyone in the Saxa team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut it was Frank\u2019s firm wish that we should complete the mission that he and I and Debbie set out on way back in 2017, of turning SaxaVord into a commercial success story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have come a long way since then, with all the infrastructure and personnel in place, as well as the requisite licences, to become the UK\u2019s and Europe\u2019s leading vertical launch rocket site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am honoured to have been chosen to lead the company and will continue to give my heart and soul to this project as CEO.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look forward to working closely with the team, our clients, investors, government and regulators to put the UK on the map as Europe\u2019s gateway to space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hammond was a co-founder with Frank and Debbie Strang of the original Shetland Space Centre, now SaxaVord Spaceport, in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>A former RAF Tornado pilot, staff officer and flight commander, he played a critical role in the technical set up of the site, including trajectory analysis, rocket evaluation and operating procedures as well as leading the planning, design and build of the ground infrastructure to meet market needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2025\/08\/19\/hammond-takes-chief-executive-role\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The spaceport said Hammond was also a key liaison with government and regulatory agencies over the formulation of the UK regulations.<\/p>\n<p>The spaceport announced earlier this month that CEO Frank Strang had died at the age of 67 less than a month after revealing he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Shetland News is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<p>Removal of third-party ads;<br \/>\nBookmark posts to read later;<br \/>\nExclusive curated weekly newsletter;<br \/>\nHide membership messages;<br \/>\nComments open for discussion.<\/p>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2025\/08\/19\/hammond-takes-chief-executive-role\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign in<\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAXAVORD Spaceport has announced that Scott Hammond will be its new chief executive following the death of co-founder&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[33927,90,416,33928,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-77655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-saxavord","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-space","11":"tag-spaceport","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77655","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=77655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}