this is the first launch pad that s been constructed, and there will be at least another two on this site. by the time everything is up and running, there will be up to 30 launches a year. it s only when you get here that you really get a sense of the scale of this project and just how remote this place is. but shetland isn t the only site in scotland. more spaceports are planned in sutherland on the north coast and benbecula in the outer hebrides. the hope is these could all give a big boost to the local economies, and that s especially important here in unst. this island has suffered quite badly from depopulation over the last 20 or 30 years. there s a small airfield here, used to be the third busiest heliport in the uk, and then they also had an raf station here. when that left, it s about half the population of the island, and clearly that had a massive economic impact. so, you know, we re helping with the sort
the hope is these could all give a big boost to the local economies, and that s especially important here in unst. this island has suffered quite badly from depopulation over the last 20 or 30 years. there s a small airfield here, used to be the third busiest heliport in the uk, and then they also had an raf station here. when that left, it s about half the population of the island, and clearly that had a massive economic impact. so, you know, we re helping with the sort of rejuvenation of the island. we re hoping here, as we run it as a spaceport, we ll have more and more servicejobs, doing the fuelling of the rockets, putting liquid oxygen into the rockets. and those, of course, are going to be high paid, high skilled jobs. there s still some way to go and more launch pads to complete. the next step, though, is to start testing rockets before the first shetland blastoff to space scheduled for 2023.
and one is in an unlikely place in one of the most remote parts of the country. here in unst, one of the shetland islands, where sheep outnumber people and shetland ponies look on. this is the saxavord spaceport, which should see the uk s first ever vertical rocket launch. i think the first response from the locals was probably maybe it was an april fool or something like that. and then just as they ve seen the progress and the development since we ve been going, there s been real excitement about what we ve been doing. but there s a good reason they ve chosen the northernmost tip of the uk. so the site was identified five years ago by the government, you know, looking for the uk s capability to launch, which was which is the missing part of the space puzzle. and shetland we are so far north, no centres of population, you know,
A PROPOSAL to change an Unst pub’s operating plan to allow 16 and 17 year olds to stay the whole night through to 1am - which drew significant concern from the police - has been turned down. The team behind Balta Light applied for the change because it said there are a couple.
it s only when you get here that you really get a sense of the scale of this project and just how remote this place is. but shetland isn t the only site in scotland. more spaceports are planned in sutherland on the north coast and benbecula in the outer hebrides. the hope is these could all give a big boost to the local economies, and that s especially important here in unst. this island has suffered quite badly from depopulation over the last 20 or 30 years. there s a small airfield here, used to be the third busiest heliport in the uk, and then they also had an raf station here. when that left, its about half the population of the island, and clearly that had a massive economic impact. so, you know, we re helping with the sort of rejuvenation of the island. we re hoping here, as we run it as a spaceport, we ll have more and more servicejobs, doing the fuelling of the rockets, putting liquid oxygen into the rockets.