NIALL McCAMLEY from Glasgow Science Centre explains how Glasgow and Scotland are about to go to infinity and beyond.

FINGERS on buzzers: can you name a Scottish city synonymous with satellite production? Glasgow? You have hit the jackpot!

Not only does Glasgow produce more satellites than any other city in Europe, it builds more than anywhere else outside the United States. Scotland is quietly one of the countries at the forefront of the space industry and may soon have one of the UK’s very first spaceports.

Scotland’s first spaceport is planned for Sutherland on the A’Mhoine peninsula in the Highlands. But what is a spaceport and why is that exciting? Spaceports, sometimes also known as cosmodromes, are where spacecraft launch and sometimes land. They are the same as airports are to aeroplanes and ports are to ships.

One of the most famous spaceports in the world is the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is where Apollo 11 launched and carried Neil Armstrong into space to become the first person to walk on the moon. Not all spaceports transport people though, so in the short term, Scotland’s payloads will be satellites.

Spaceports can launch spacecraft in two ways: horizontally or vertically. Vertical launches are the most well-known, an upright rocket that ignites and lifts straight up with stages that fall away as fuel is used.

Horizontal launches are more akin to aircraft taking off from a flat runway carrying a rocket. Scotland’s first spaceport will be a vertical launch site that puts satellites into orbit.

Space Hub Sutherland is set to be the UK’s first spaceport, limited to 12 satellite launches a year for environmental reasons.

The UK is hoping to launch 2000 small satellites by 2030 and Scottish launches are planned to begin by 2024.

These launches will help telecommunications, internet connectivity, scientific research, and Earth observation, which all require thousands of satellites. A lot of these will come from Glasgow. Most satellites will weigh less than 500kg, which means more than one can be launched in the same rocket, making it more economical.

Sutherland was chosen for several reasons: its location by the coast means launches won’t travel over inhabited areas, its proximity to satellite production hubs mean transport costs are reduced, and its positioning allows for putting satellites in polar orbits and Sun Synchronous Orbits (SSO). Polar orbits usually travel around Earth from north to south, roughly passing over the planet’s poles. An SSO is a type of polar orbit where a satellite will visit the same spot every day at the same local time. An example would be passing over Glasgow at noon everyday. It means scientists can compare images to see how locations change over time.

How is the spaceport being built? Space Hub Sutherland will cost around £17 million with funding from UK Space Agency (UKSA) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Glasgow Science Centre’s planetarium and astronomy team is excited about the new era of space exploration that’s happening in Glasgow. Look out for our space related GSC At Home content on YouTube, and come and visit us when lockdown’s over.

It’s something to be excited about in the midst of all the pandemic gloom: Scotland is going to space!