Meeting of the Parliament 27 April 2023
I welcome this debate on space sector opportunities and the potential for Scotland. Scotland has the UK’s fastest-growing space sector and there are ambitions to grow a £4 billion space industry by 2030. We are on our way—in 2020-21, the sector had an income of £180 million, which is an increase of 30 per cent since 2018-19. As the motion highlights, we punch above our weight, with 18 per cent of all UK space-related roles in Scotland, which is double our share of the UK’s population.
More satellites are built in Glasgow than are built anywhere else in Europe, and, with the increased emphasis on data in our lives, as the minister has highlighted, the opportunities are evident. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which are vital to the wider business economy, are making their mark in Scotland’s space industry. On Tuesday, I saw this for myself in my constituency in relation to the impact on the supply chain of the development of the SaxaVord spaceport, home to the UK pathfinder programme, which is backed by Lockheed Martin.
Unst, with a population of around 650, is the most northerly inhabited community in Scotland—indeed, in the UK. It is the final frontier. The SaxaVord spaceport, which is sited at the northern tip of Unst, has been an important national infrastructure link for decades. RAF Saxa Vord, which was a vital radar base operated by the Royal Air Force in the second world war, became a listening ear during the cold war. The Ministry of Defence continues its presence there today.
In 2017, entrepreneur Frank Strang and his business partner Scott Hammond gave a presentation to Shetland Islands Council. Their vision of a spaceport in Unst seemed light years away to those of us sitting in the council chamber that day. However, just as Shetland did 50 years before with the oil industry, we welcomed this new opportunity for Shetland plc.
SaxaVord spaceport leads the way. It will provide vertical launch and ground station facilities for a range of US, European and British launch providers and satellites. Construction work began just over a year ago and one launch pad has already been completed. The company now employs around 60 people, with more to come, and contributes millions of pounds to the economy.
On Tuesday, I was one of the guests at a joint event that was hosted by SaxaVord spaceport and German company HyImpulse Technologies to see engine testing for a small orbital launcher. HyImpulse has been working in Shetland on the development of the system and testing programme, and this joint working should see its first suborbital launch from SaxaVord spaceport later this year. That will be a significant landmark moment for HyImpulse, for SaxaVord spaceport, for Shetland and for Scotland. Unst will be the headline, not the footnote, in Scotland’s space sector.
Shetland’s local supply chain is also benefiting. With massive experience in supporting the oil and gas sector, local firms are now turning their skills to supporting the space industry. Those firms include fabricating and engineering companies such as Ocean Kinetics, which built the main support frame for HyImpulse to test its rocket engine, and Lerwick Engineering and Fabrication, which is building the launch rail for the suborbital launch at SaxaVord spaceport.
Shetland’s geography is challenging. Interisland transport could be improved with short tunnels, but, when it comes to space, Shetland is an asset as its location at the crossroads of the North Sea and the Atlantic makes it an ideal spot to launch small satellites into orbit. That northerly point is looking to the stars for the next chapter in space technology and development, alongside community and educational collaboration, with SaxaVord having already attracted a quarter of a million children to its online STEM lessons.
I will now turn to the opportunities that might lie in defence. In a recent session of the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster, my colleague Christine Jardine MP asked about the potential for defence in the high north and north Atlantic that the space sector could provide. In response, there was a discussion about tracking ships and the protection of at-sea infrastructure. At the end of last year, Shetland experienced a serious telecoms outage as a result of a damaged undersea cable. Media reports have also highlighted concerns about Russian vessels performing cold war action off Shetland.
There is great opportunity for Scotland to be at the forefront of modern technology development for use at home and across our vast sea territories. We can also help allies by being poised with such technologies and open to future developments. As we embrace a new challenge and take up those opportunities, Scotland must embrace its share of responsibility, too, and help to clean up space with the same zeal that we have for the transition to more sustainable living here on earth.
We can, and should, be ambitious about the contribution that Scotland can bring to the space sector. We should allow the growing and exciting sector to help us to reassess the current status quo, and we should be forever forward thinking in what we can do and about the responsibilities that we have to future generations and the environments that we reach. Scotland’s space future is bright and buoyant. May we go boldly.
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