Ministers want to establish the UK spaceport by 2018 – the first of its kind outside of the US. Eight aerodromes have been shortlisted and Scotland has six of the potential locations. The Scottish government said only independence would lead to a greater development of the country’s space industry.
For ministers and the space industry, the major interest in a UK spaceport is as a facility to enable satellite launches, but hopefully it would also become a centre for the new tourism initiatives from specialist operators such as Virgin Galactic and XCor. Ahead of the announcement at this week’s Farnborough Airshow, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander hinted that Scotland could become a key player in the UK government’s future plans for developing commercial space travel.
He said: "I am delighted that the government is pushing forward with its ambitious plans to open a spaceport in the UK by 2018. Spaceports will be key to us opening up the final frontier of commercial space travel. "Scotland has a proud association with space exploration. We celebrated Neil Armstrong’s Scottish ancestry when he became the first man on the Moon and only last week an amazing Scottish company was responsible for building the UK Space Agency’s first satellite.
"The UK space industry is one of our great success stories and I am sure there will be a role for Scotland to play in the future."