Local billionaire landowner renews his oppposition to the Sutherland spaceport
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea.
An effort by the proposed Sutherland spaceport on the north coast of Scotland to place a tracking dish on a nearby peak — where other telecommunication dishes are already installed — is now being fought by local billionaire landowner Anders Holch Povlsen, who had previously tried and failed to stop construction of the spaceport entirely.
The spaceport’s main customer, the rocket startup Orbex, has already experienced endless red tape from the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It applied for a launch license in February 2022, and almost two-and-a-half years later still has not gotten an approval. It had previously announced a first launch that year, and has been stymied since, not only by the CAA but by local authorities who have demanded it make many changes to its construction plans.
Povlsen, who has himself invested in the competing Saxavord spaceport on the Shetland Islands, has repeatedly acted to block Sutherland, so far with no success. This new suit is especially absurd — claiming the new dish would harm the local landscape — which is why the local councils appear ready to reject it.
[Sutherland’s launch program director John] May told the community council the top of Ben Tongue offered a much better view of the horizon for monitoring rocket trajectories than the site at the launch facility. He said the proposed dishes would be five metres in diameter compared with the 20m-high telecommunications infrastructure already in place on the summit of the mountain. The dishes would be “collapsible” and erected only on launch days and for testing purposes.
The existing track to the summit would be used with a temporary track built only to move the equipment. No excavation or vibration would be required, he said, as equipment would be secured using a rock anchoring technique. May added that a visitor management plan would be drawn up and people prevented from climbing or driving up Ben Tongue on launch days.
In other words, Povlsen’s suit is harassment by a wealthy man who has a vested interest in blocking Sutherland to benefit his interests at Saxavord. Orbex meanwhile is being left hanging. It has a 50-year lease at Sutherland, but it is beginning to look like it might take a substantial portion of that time period just to get its government approvals finalized.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea.
An effort by the proposed Sutherland spaceport on the north coast of Scotland to place a tracking dish on a nearby peak — where other telecommunication dishes are already installed — is now being fought by local billionaire landowner Anders Holch Povlsen, who had previously tried and failed to stop construction of the spaceport entirely.
The spaceport’s main customer, the rocket startup Orbex, has already experienced endless red tape from the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It applied for a launch license in February 2022, and almost two-and-a-half years later still has not gotten an approval. It had previously announced a first launch that year, and has been stymied since, not only by the CAA but by local authorities who have demanded it make many changes to its construction plans.
Povlsen, who has himself invested in the competing Saxavord spaceport on the Shetland Islands, has repeatedly acted to block Sutherland, so far with no success. This new suit is especially absurd — claiming the new dish would harm the local landscape — which is why the local councils appear ready to reject it.
[Sutherland’s launch program director John] May told the community council the top of Ben Tongue offered a much better view of the horizon for monitoring rocket trajectories than the site at the launch facility. He said the proposed dishes would be five metres in diameter compared with the 20m-high telecommunications infrastructure already in place on the summit of the mountain. The dishes would be “collapsible” and erected only on launch days and for testing purposes.
The existing track to the summit would be used with a temporary track built only to move the equipment. No excavation or vibration would be required, he said, as equipment would be secured using a rock anchoring technique. May added that a visitor management plan would be drawn up and people prevented from climbing or driving up Ben Tongue on launch days.
In other words, Povlsen’s suit is harassment by a wealthy man who has a vested interest in blocking Sutherland to benefit his interests at Saxavord. Orbex meanwhile is being left hanging. It has a 50-year lease at Sutherland, but it is beginning to look like it might take a substantial portion of that time period just to get its government approvals finalized.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Hellinikon Greece has an abandoned airport–of use?
I’m not saying I approve of Henry VIII Tudor, but I understand.