Stornoway, Scotland. Source: Chris Murray/flickr
Three cities in Scotland — Campbeltown, Stornoway, and Prestwick - are reported to be the top contenders to host the U.K.’s first “spaceport.” With commercial space travel looming on the horizon thanks to firms like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, this could be a big boost for the winning candidate when the British government makes its final decision. According to the Daily Mail, by 2030 the U.K. space industry is estimated to be worth $58.9 billion and provide 100,000 jobs. The objective is to have the spaceport ready for launching satellites and tourism spaceships by 2019.
The U.K.’s Department of Transport published a list of criteria for eligible spaceport sites last week, which tipped the scales in favor of the Scottish candidates over the competitors in England and Wales. The government requires a clear flight path north, over the sea, into a polar orbit, and it prefers a coastal site with low population density.
Beyond the money, development, and prestige a spaceport would bring, there are compelling reasons for choosing one of the Scottish locations. Advocating Stornoway as “an ideal location,” Western Isles Council leader Angus Campbell cited “the vast expanse of the Atlantic ocean around us,” and highlighted that “we are only one hour away from a host of research and development facilities; we have the University of the Highlands and Islands on our doorstep; our northerly location gives more daylight for more of the year than any other location and we have extremely low air traffic levels.”
The Scottish government is fully supporting a Scottish victory, without favoring a single site above the other two. But given the long-term trends of depopulation and unemployment in Scotland, a spaceport could bring a reversal and prove to be a prescient investment.
The other side of the equation for the whole scheme to work is that the commercial space travel firms need to deliver on their lofty promises. There has been encouraging news on this front — on December 21, SpaceX finally succeeded in landing its Falcon 9 rocket undamaged, which CEO Elon Musk said is ready to fire again.
And on Sunday Sir Richard Branson said that Galactic Virgin’s commercial space travel will be more environmentally friendly than air travel because of vastly lower travel time (and it will have “spectacular views along the way.”) “I suspect, in two to three years, we’ll not be using any carbon output at all for our space program… We believe space can play a major part in helping the world we live in and getting on top of climate change,” he stated. If so, Scotland will play a pioneering early-adapter role for the coming space revolution.
