Update: This article was prepared before an explosion at SaxaVord Spaceport on 19 August 2024 during the test firing of an RFA One rocket.  An addendum about the accident and its implications for orbital launches from the UK is included at the bottom of the article. News that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched […]

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is currently considering airspace changes needed to allow Spaceport 1, one of no less than five spaceport developments proposed for Scotland, to commence operations. Spaceport 1 would be located at Scolpaig on the remote island of North Uist in the Hebrides, close to the Ministry of Defence's Hebrides rocket testing […]

Over the past decade, both the US and UK governments have designated space as a key focus as military operations increasingly rely on space-based assets for command and control, surveillance, targeting, missile warning and secure communications with forces deployed overseas. In 2019 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) declared that space should be seen as “a […]

Tonight’s planned space launch from Newquay ‘spaceport’ is the latest step in a new era of expansion into space by the military with the UK wholeheartedly joining a space arms race which will inevitably lead to greater risk of instability and conflict. Space is rapidly becoming a key domain for military operations as modern wars […]