IT was one giant leap forward in progress towards commercial spaceflight from Scotland when an Ayrshire company last night submitted an ambitious bid to launch from a Prestwick Airport spaceport.
Orbital Access, founded by Kilmarnock-born aeronautical engineer Stuart McIntyre, has applied for a £10 million UK Government grant and – if successful – the first satellites will blast off from Scotland in 2020.
The joint bid with the Ayrshire airport and Cornwall Airport Newquay could bring a multi-billion pound economic boost to the west of Scotland by 2030.
To win grant funding, Orbital Access will have to show how they will “develop spaceflight capabilities, such as building spaceport infrastructure or adapting launch vehicle technology for use in the UK”.
McIntyre said: “The bids are capped at £10m, with more available if there are exceptional economic benefits. I have to say we have applied for more funding than the basic cap.
“We are already employing engineers in developing the spaceflight systems. Operationally, we expect to be able to start services in terms of space launch in late 2020, early 2021. Those timescales are short, they are near.
“The spaceport programme is all about satellite launch into orbit, not yet about space tourism. Tourism businesses will develop. In terms of the commercial launch industry this is a short term ambition and the industrial gears are turning to achieve that.”
The 51-year-old’s grandfather, David McIntyre, founded Prestwick Airport in 1935 when he bought farmland which became the first runway.
His grandson said: "On a personal level the spaceport means a huge amount. To reinvigorate and re-establish the public’s understanding of what Prestwick really represents to Scotland and to the economy is a strong personal ambition."
The airport is probably most famous as the only place in Britain Elvis Presley ever set foot on as he stopped-off on return from national service in Germany in March 1960.
McIntyre continued: “It’s not founded on emotion and history. It’s founded on facts. The reality is that we’re building the next generation of aerospace for the nation. While Glasgow and Edinburgh [airports] play very important roles in the transport system in Scotland, in the aerospace system in Scotland Prestwick is the beating heart.”
The spaceport bid was submitted ahead of the House of Commons Science and Technology committee releasing a new report on the UK Government’s Draft Spaceflight Bill, which will create a regulatory framework for commercial spaceflight.
McIntyre has urged the next government to press ahead with the Bill as soon as the General Election has been held.
“Our programme will develop a modern system to allow us to launch our satellites. It’s a major project to design, develop and test that launcher. Part of the funding we’ve applied for is to achieve that goal.
“That yields a series of further development opportunities worth £6bn to the UK economy by 2030. Scotland probably represents about 20 per cent of the UK’s space industry and if we locate this project in Scotland then clearly we make a significantly greater proportion of that value in Scotland. ”
SNP MP Carol Monaghan, who sits on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, said: “We need to push this on quickly and have the regulation in place as soon as possible because Prestwick is geared up and ready to go. We’ve got companies looking to pull in investment and any delay is jeopardising that.
“We could be putting our own satellites into orbit, thirty miles from Glasgow, which is phenomenal to think about. If you’d talked about the west of Scotland being an area of space expertise ten years ago people would have laughed at you. But the ambition with the Prestwick bid has no limits which is fantastic to see. As a former physics teacher it excites me greatly. We’re perfectly positioned. We just need the legislation.”
Conservative MP Stephen Metcalfe, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, said he shares the Government’s “determination to develop the UK market for space activities even further by enabling launches from UK-based spaceports from 2020.”
He said: “It is a bold ambition that is matched by a real commitment from industry to turn it into a reality."
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