Shetland Space Port

[sherbertdip]

Now that Shetland's space port has been given the greenlight for vertical launches I do wonder why it was chosen as a suitable place (other than nobody lives nearby).

I always thought that payload carrying rockets were better launched from near the equator due to the increased angular momentum there rather than nearer the poles, so reducing fuel requirements and allowing larger payloads.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-...

[eharding]

sherbertdip said:

I always thought that payload carrying rockets were better launched from near the equator due to the increased angular momentum there rather than nearer the poles, so reducing fuel requirements and allowing larger payloads.

Not really a factor if you're launching into a polar orbit, which is where launches from this site are going to be. Interesting that they state that Machrihanish and Prestwick are still hoping to join Newquay as bases for air-launched space flights, but with Virgin Orbit out of business is anyone else still going down that route?

[Eric Mc]

There are very few launch sites near the equator. The main criteria, especially outside of Russia and China, is to ensure that the rockets are being launched over low population or uninhabited areas. Launches from Northern Scotland can be inserted into polar orbits and have a fairly clear launch path north.

[sherbertdip]

Thank you both for the information, I hadn't thought about polar orbits, I guess a follow on question is how many launch days a year there would be because of weather limits being broken?

[MiniMan64]

sherbertdip said:

Thank you both for the information, I hadn't thought about polar orbits, I guess a follow on question is how many launch days a year there would be because of weather limits being broken?

A fair amount I think but they have plenty of weather issues in the tropics too

[FourWheelDrift]

sherbertdip said:

Now that Shetland's space port has been given the greenlight for vertical launches I do wonder why it was chosen as a suitable place (other than nobody lives nearby).

I always thought that payload carrying rockets were better launched from near the equator due to the increased angular momentum there rather than nearer the poles, so reducing fuel requirements and allowing larger payloads.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-...

They are higher up so don't have so far to go to get into space.

[Eric Mc]

FourWheelDrift said:

They are higher up so don't have so far to go to get into space.

Not sure if you are being serious.

[glazbagun]

The CAA have put up a celebratory video with more epic music. Way to hype those small victories.

https://twitter.com/UK_CAA/status/1736348259998654...

[Beati Dogu]

They’re currently constructing a space port on the northern coast of the Scottish mainland. The Sutherland Spaceport. Lockheed Martin were originally going to share this with Orbex, but LM will operate from Shetland now.

[sherman]

Shetland weatherwise managed to build a 100 turbine on shore wind farm of 100m high turbines this in 8 months this year to give you an idea of good weather conditions.
They also have damn near perpetual daylight for 4 months so can launch 24/7 in summer.
Iirc the nearest 'settlemnent' is several miles from the spaceort and its aimed north out over the sea where the next land mass is Iceland.
The rockets and payloads will be delivered by sea to the spaceport so delivery is not an issue.

[paul.deitch]

Hopefully they'll be selling launch viewing tickets.

[sherman]

paul.deitch said:

Hopefully they'll be selling launch viewing tickets.

It will be a visable from most of Shetland on a good day. Its quite a flat island really.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

FourWheelDrift said:

They are higher up so don't have so far to go to get into space.

Not sure if you are being serious.

They could save a bit of fuel if they started from the top of Ben Nevis

Apparently this will be the UK's first 'vertical rocket launch'. That suggests we've launched some at an angle...

And whilst launched from Oz, let's not forget the Black Arrow programme over 50 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow

[Eric Mc]

We launched quite a few vertical rockets from UK soil in the past - but none of them were orbital.

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

We launched quite a few vertical rockets from UK soil in the past - but none of them were orbital.

It's curious. The page says 'It will be the first fully-licensed spaceport in Western Europe able to launch vertically into orbit.' So there could have been vertical launches into orbit from unlicensed spaceports (WTF is a 'spaceport' anyway - it sounds like something from Thunderbirds), or there could have been non-vertical launches into orbit, or non-vertical launches not into orbit... and why would you want to launch something at an angle anyway? Are there 'fully-licensed spaceports' that can't launch vertically into orbit, or do they launch vertically but not into orbit? Or maybe there are unlicensed spaceports... what does a licence confer? The headline has too many options

[Eric Mc]

"Spaceports" are usually launch sites run for commercial purposes - as opposed to government owned facilities. The old US Army (later Air Force) White Sands Proving Grounds are now known as White Sands Spaceport.

[hidetheelephants]

It's unlikely St Mawgan or Machrihanish would be permitted to launch vertically, there's too much UK in the way. Sutherland polar launches are clear, so that's ok like the Shetland one is.

[Simpo Two]

hidetheelephants said:

It's unlikely St Mawgan or Machrihanish would be permitted to launch vertically, there's too much UK in the way. Sutherland polar launches are clear, so that's ok like the Shetland one is.

Ah now that makes sense - if you launch vertically and your rocket goes wrong it lands back on top of you, or goes through somebody's greenhouse. So if your rocket is crap, fire it out to sea.

Evidently no greenhouses on Shetland

[Halmyre]

sherman said:

It will be a visable from most of Shetland on a good day. Its quite a flat island really.

Incoming parrot ahoy, probably, but Lerwick is nearly 50 miles from Saxa Vord. You'd need a 1600 foot tower to see the launch point.

[hidetheelephants]

Simpo Two said:

hidetheelephants said:

It's unlikely St Mawgan or Machrihanish would be permitted to launch vertically, there's too much UK in the way. Sutherland polar launches are clear, so that's ok like the Shetland one is.

Ah now that makes sense - if you launch vertically and your rocket goes wrong it lands back on top of you, or goes through somebody's greenhouse. So if your rocket is crap, fire it out to sea.

Evidently no greenhouses on Shetland

Not quite; launches for low earth orbits(typically but not always on polar orbits; in the case of UK launches safety probably precludes other directions) start tipping over to add horizontal velocity and pass over everything down range, as the civil authorities take a dim view of rocket debris landing in Mrs Miggins' prize marrows and smashing her cold frame this means generally they're not allowed to pass over centres of population. In the UK that means launching toward the Norwegian Sea, which is mostly filled with MAMBA, as is everywhere between here and there. Polar orbit launches are more expensive as the earth isn't rotating that way(perhaps someone could arrange a conveyor belt?).