Space / Parliamentary committee confident of more government support for SaxaVord Spaceport
Spaceport set to play role in the UK’s sovereign defence capability
THE CHAIR of an influential parliament committee has praised the entrepreneurial drive of the team behind the SaxaVord Spaceport following a visit to Unst.
Patricia Ferguson MP said she was confident the UK Government now fully understood the significance of space in an increasingly volatile world and would do everything it could to support the sector in Scotland.
Photo: Hans J Marter/Shetland News
Six members of the UK Parliament’s Scottish Affairs Committee visited the SaxaVord site on Sunday and Monday, as part of its inquiry into the Scottish space sector.
They met with SaxaVord senior management as well as representatives from Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), the company that is planning a first launch from a UK spaceport later this year.
The Glasgow West MP acknowledged that the parliament’s inquiry into the fast-growing sector was coming rather late but added that the previous committee had not been able to conclude its inquiry because “the general election came along at a point no-one expected it”.
The new committee went to the Norwegian spaceport site on the island of Andøya in March this year and is not planning any other visits to potential Scottish spaceports as “there is not very much to see there at the moment”.
The committee’s report with recommendations is expected to be published before the summer recess, and there is an obligation on the government to respond within a set timeframe.
“The confidence they have about their potential is really impressive and justifiable. That was very interesting and reassuring,” Ferguson said as she described her impressions from the visit.
“The fact that they have got so many plans for the future, how they want to expand and the other things that they could do including engagement with the community was also very impressive.
“They really seem to have thought about how you make this work in a number or ways, not just economically and commercially, but also in terms of being an asset in the community too.”
She acknowledged that it has taken some time, and not just in government, to recognise and understand the significance of the growing UK space sector generally, and the importance of the SaxaVord project in particular.
Financed almost entirely privately, with the Danish billionaire Anders Polson now the majority shareholder, the UK Government was rather late in awarding £10 million of finance in March last year.
“I get the impression that the government does recognise this now, and I suspect they really want to work with SaxaVord going forward,” Ferguson said.
“I would be very surprised if they didn’t, but I can’t speak for them.
“The world has become a lot more volatile, and the capability of launching satellites from Scotland is really important now, and I think government will become more involved in that as time goes on.
“These days in particular you want to have sovereign defence capability, so it [SaxaVord] could be a really useful part of that.”
The MP added: “I don’t think our inquiry is too late; it might be later than would have been optimal, but I still think there is an opportunity to try to influence government.
“All credit to the Strangs for what they have done. There is a recognition of that.
“I think as a country we need to do what they did and grab on to that [the opportunities space offers] and make it work.
“That is vitally important, and Shetland happens to be geographically the best place to do it.”
The Scottish Affairs Committee scrutinises the expenditure, administration and policies of the UK Government’s Scotland Office, and its associated bodies. It features MPs from various political parties and makes recommendations to government.
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