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 range.  The contractor operating the range, Qinetiq, is a partner in the project, which is being led by the local council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CnES), alongside funding agency Highlands and Islands Enterprise and private investors Rhea Group and Commercial Space Technologies.  The proposal is attractive to Qinetiq as it would allow spare capacity on the range to be used for commercial rocket launches – initially for sub-orbital sounding rocket launches and eventually for orbital launches intended to place small satellites into sun-synchronous and polar orbits.  Nevertheless, the launch proposals will require new arrangements to segregate airspace to protect air traffic from the potential hazards of rocket launches.

The Spaceport 1 proposal has not been without controversy, raising questions about conflicts of interest in the local council's role as funder, developer, and planning authority responsible for approving the development.  CnES has spent £1 million on the purchase of land for the spaceport site, and in a rush to grant planning permission, did not undertake an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the proposal and applied minimum standards to consultation with local communities over the project.  The location proposed for the spaceport is within a National Scenic Area designated by the Scottish Government, and is an important location for wildlife, hosting a number of protected species.  Friends of Scolpaig / Caraidean Scolpaig, a local community group, was set up to oppose the development and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds objected to the proposal.  Despite these concerns, the project received planning permission and the Scottish Government, which sees spaceports as a 'quick fix' for economic development in remote rural regions, declined to call in the planning decision for review.

Concerns

Space Watch UK has a number of concerns about this development and the air space change proposal, and has written to the CAA to object to the proposal.

In terms of environmental impacts, carbon emissions are a significant concern.  The consultation document for the proposal accepts that carbon dioxide emissions will increase as a result of additional fuel burn caused by air traffic diversions required to accommodate launch arrangements, in addition to carbon emissions caused by the launches themselves.  In order to prevent catastrophic climate change we need to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  We will not succeed in doing this if we permit developments which further add to net carbon dioxide emissions.

The consultation document accepts that there will be impacts on Special Protection Areas intended to protect bird populations and habitats and potentially significant effects on other important ecological features, including the degradation of valuable habitats and disturbance to protected species.  The document also states that rocket debris will be jettisoned into the sea and it is unclear whether there are plans to recover such debris, or if so, how.  As a result launches from the spaceport can be expected to have an impact on marine ecology and pollution.

Although an EIA study has now been conducted for the spaceport plans, this does not appear to address space impacts associated with the proposal. The accumulation of objects and debris in earth orbit is a growing problem.  There does not appear to be any intention to remove satellites launched into orbit from the spaceport in a sustainable manner at the end of their useful lifetime.  Rocket launches have been shown to have detrimental effects in terms of chemical pollution on areas surrounding the launch sites and on the upper atmosphere, with potential to damage the ozone layer.  Re-entry and burn-up of space objects in the atmosphere at the end of their lifetime results in the accumulation of metal residues in the atmosphere with environmental effects for which we as yet have limited understanding.  The Spaceport 1 proposal would add to such impacts.

The EIA also failed to address concerns among some local residents that safety clearance distances around the proposed launch site do not meet standards required to protect homes in the vicinity and traffic on local roads.

Questionable Assumptions

The Spaceport 1 project is intended to generate socioeconomic benefits, particularly in terms of generating employment in the vicinity, and also to help stimulate tourist visits to North Uist.  However, the consultation document is silent on how many new jobs will be created.  There are concerns that the development will create a relatively low number of jobs for local residents and that benefits from the project will flow to corporate interests and outsiders to Scolpaig rather than local communities.  Despite the pressing need to generate economic opportunities and employment for islanders, local support for the spaceport appears to be low and the overwhelming number of responses to the planning application were opposed to the development.

Perhaps most importantly, like other spaceport developments in the UK, the Spaceport 1 proposal is a speculative development based on questionable assumptions.  There are market capacity and competition issues relating to space launch sites in northern Europe, and it is not clear who the customers for the spaceport will be or whether the economic case for the spaceport is viable.  If the development proves not to be viable, none of the projected benefits will result.

It is unlikely that the CAA will turn down the application for airspace changes to allow Spaceport 1 to operate, but the airspace change is only one of a number of licensing applications that will be required before the spaceport is able to operate.  Whether the proposal will pass the further regulatory and economic tests that it faces remains to be seen.