Spaceport licence thrusts Scotland to the very forefront of the European space sector

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has granted SaxaVord spaceport - located on the north coast of the Shetland Islands - a vertical launch spaceport licence, making SaxaVord the first of its kind in Western Europe.

This grant marks a monumental step forward for the space sector here in Scotland, as well as the wider space sectors in both the United Kingdom and Europe.

Under this licence, SaxaVord is authorised to host up to 30 vertical launches per year. This capability is likely to cause launch operators the world over to flock to the Shetland Islands. Excitingly, however, numerous of these launches are likely to involve Scottish satellites, launched via Scottish rockets, and all from Scottish soil.

The grant of this licence bolsters the United Kingdom's ambitions to become the leading provider of small satellite launches in Europe by 2030, as well as inviting investment and encouraging technological innovation in the British space sector.

This news comes only days after the UK Space Agency announced funding of more than £6.7 million aimed at strengthening the capabilities of Scotland's spaceports. Namely, Scottish-based launch company Hylmpulse - which enjoys links to SaxaVord - received £3.4 million, whilst Orbex - which enjoys links to Sutherland spaceport - received over £3.3 million investment.

As an aero-mechanical engineering student at the University of Strathclyde, I completed a group project titled Suborbital Rocket Operations in the UK in fulfilment of my Master's degree. The project involved in-depth analyses of the suitability of the UK's spaceports for hosting suborbital rocket launches, and served to convince me of the vast potential which the UK space sector looks set to fulfil.

The above, therefore, came as welcome news indeed, both to myself and those of my colleagues here at Marks & Clerk with similar space-related expertise. Equipped with this expertise, we are keen to aid organisations active in the UK space sector in the protection of their intellectual property, and thus in fully realising their commercial potential.