Hyperdrive
The British Are Building a Spaceport
Northern Scotland will be home to the United Kingdom’s first commercial launch site.
Photographer: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
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The lure of commercial riches in space is spurring a variety of plans to help launch all the components necessary for a fully functioning orbital economy.
The latest to enter this private-sector race is the U.K., which announced Monday that it plans to construct the nation’s first commercial vertical launch spaceport in northern Scotland. Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded $31 million for two U.K. projects: Establishing vertical launch operations in Sutherland and a development program slated for Reading to deploy a new “delivery vehicle” to deploy as many as six small satellites.