Local authorities in Scotland have approved spaceport concept
Capitalism in space: Local authorities in northern Scotland have recommended that planning of a private spaceport in Sutherland should move forward.
Will this happen? I wonder, based on this detail from the article:
Councillors on Highland Council’s north planning applications committee will consider the proposals for Space Hub Sutherland on Friday.
The local authority has received 457 objections to the plans and 118 representations in support of them. Impact on the environment and risk to human health are among the reasons for the objections.
Local community councils have supported the project because it is expected to create new jobs.
The article implies that the local communities support the project, but I’m not sure. Either way, in our fear-driven society today getting that many objections would be is a major hurdle for any project to leap.
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Capitalism in space: Local authorities in northern Scotland have recommended that planning of a private spaceport in Sutherland should move forward.
Will this happen? I wonder, based on this detail from the article:
Councillors on Highland Council’s north planning applications committee will consider the proposals for Space Hub Sutherland on Friday.
The local authority has received 457 objections to the plans and 118 representations in support of them. Impact on the environment and risk to human health are among the reasons for the objections.
Local community councils have supported the project because it is expected to create new jobs.
The article implies that the local communities support the project, but I’m not sure. Either way, in our fear-driven society today getting that many objections would be is a major hurdle for any project to leap.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“Hurtle” – Verb: to move at high speed, in an uncontrolled manner..
“Hurdle” – Noun: a barrier athletes in a foot race must jump over.
Ray Van Dune: Thank you. Typo fixed.
You are welcome, and I should have added, I agree with your assessment of the hurdles the project faces.
The market for a high-latitude private spaceport kind of escapes me. The former “Kodiak” location in Alaska at least offers a wide range of Southerly launch azimuths over the pretty damn near empty North Pacific.
This Moine location would seem to offer only Northerly launches, being blocked to the south by the UK and Ireland, and to the east by Scandinavia and Russia. Westerly? Oof… perhaps not a good option for smallsat-class boosters!
Ray, what about ”point-to-point“ travel by global rocket? Doesn‘t every large city need a spaceport?
A land spaceport for p2p only really makes sense for a winged rocketplane, and the only real difference from an existing airport in that case is the ability to serve unpowered, gliding landings as a normal feature rather than as an emergency situation (and to supply rocket fuel, and perhaps a hangar large enough for a launcher aircraft). For a VTVL, well, Elon’s not designing CVN-sized barges just for grins; the massive noise generated on a regular (daily?) schedule would get suborbitals kicked out of most cities in a hurry, never mind the collateral risks of a crash in an urban environment.
Just as the NRO made Rocketlab launch the NRO satellites from Virginia, I’m sure the UK will want to do the same thing. It doesn’t have to be in Scotland but it has to be somewhere.
With the UK leaving the E.U. and becoming a real country again, it is vitally important to national security to be able to launch its space assets from its own soil.