Council to Spend £240,000 on Developing Spaceport, Aerospace Sector
Artist’s rendering of Glasgow Prestwick Spaceport (Credit: South Ayreshire Council)
PRESTWICK, Scotland (South Ayrshire Council PR) — Plans to drive forward development at Prestwick in the aerospace and space hub sectors is to benefit from a major new project. South Ayrshire Council has agreed to joint fund a two-year support package designed to build Prestwick’s momentum as one of the UK’s leading aerospace clusters.
Almost quarter of a million pounds will be invested to develop Prestwick’s aerospace sector as part of work driven by the Prestwick Aerospace partnership. South Ayrshire Council has approved £120,000 from an existing budget, a figure which is being matched by Scottish Enterprise.
The money will be used to pay for a comprehensive development programme, that includes infrastructure, business development, energy reduction, and supply chain development. As part of this approach a new Programme Manager will work with a broad range of partner organisations*. Glasgow Prestwick Airport (GPA) will provide office and admin support, with the successful candidate to be based at the airport.
Progress is already being made in this sector with the new Glasgow Prestwick Spaceport now a step closer to becoming a reality. The Department for Transport recently announced it was setting up a regulatory framework to license individual sites, which could lead to a network of spaceports being set up around the UK. Prestwick is a frontrunner to become one of the first and, should a license be granted, the project is forecast to deliver up to 1450 jobs in a ten year period, and up to £320 million of additional economic activity.
Eileen Howat, South Ayrshire Council’s Chief Executive said the time was right for fresh investment, “Aerospace is already a vital sector for the Ayrshire and Scottish economy and we’re now entering an exciting phase where we need to push forward our ambitious plans for Prestwick.
“Recent news of the licensing framework for spaceports means that Prestwick stands the best chance of being the UK’s first commercial hubs to service growing demand for industrial and tourism space related services.
“But to achieve wider growth in the aerospace sector we need to invest, and as part of a wider approach, we’re looking to secure an exceptional individual to help accelerate jobs growth and attract investment, and I think this new appointment will do just that.”
Ayrshire is currently home to 3,200 aerospace workers, with 5% growth forecasts suggesting the figure could rise by 2,000 in the next ten years. Taking additional spaceport jobs into consideration, total employment at Prestwick could rise to 6,650 by 2028, an increase of 108% over 10 years.
Allan McQuade, Business Infrastructure Director, Scottish Enterprise, said: “Prestwick could soon become a world leader in an emerging market, we want to help create an environment that delivers competitive advantage for the Scottish aerospace industry, while also driving innovation in the aerospace and space industries.
“The forecasts already point to strong growth for Prestwick but the hard work starts now if we are to steal a march on competitors from across the UK.
“While Ayrshire is already home to a thriving aerospace industry, we need to identify new partners from across the world to complement our capabilities here, as we work towards fully realising our wider ambitions.”
The targeted investment will help drive growth by managing a diverse programme of work in areas including: infrastructure for space commercial development; inward investment by targeting prospects and bringing fresh business to Ayrshire; supply chain development; and skills, by ensuring employer needs are met through education.
13 responses to “Council to Spend £240,000 on Developing Spaceport, Aerospace Sector”
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“The forecasts already point to strong growth for Prestwick”
Man I hope so. As a British space enthusiat I’ve seen so much potential from our small sat and advanced propulsion technology sectors for a nation that has been rather reserved in the industry so far. But given Virgin’s ongoing issues and Xcor’s apparent drop from the suborbital market, this seems like a premtive dead end. If such a thing is possible.
If the UK space industry is going to make a splash, lets forget runways and tourism. The future is polar orbits and landing pads. And even then it’s a gamble. How many square footage of tarmac laid per satellite bus engineer? We’ll never be the Cape, but we still could be the JPL.
Except for Pegasus launch vehicles for polar orbits take off vertically. So a space port will need a launch pad with a tower. Rocket technicians and scientist paying for their own food will probably eat in a work’s canteen. The diagram shows a 5 star restaurant without a tower. Looks like a politician’s ego trip to me.
While I agree with your overall statement, rockets do not need a tower – unless you either have people riding on top of them or you insist (for whatever reason) on vertical processing of the rocket.
Atlas V does not use a tower (a crew access tower for commercial crew flights is currently being built)
Falcon 9 does not use a tower.
Soyuz does not use a tower.
Antares does not use a tower.
etc.
You need a launchpad and you need some kind of “crawler-erector” to get your rocket there from the hangar and get it into vertical position. No tower required.
That building is obviously designed for manned flight by first class passengers.
That is an artists rendition of a “spaceport” with the sole purpose of looking cool, modern, futuristic, to sell the concept to investors, taxpayers and everybody else.
Don’t expect all future spaceports to look like Spaceport America.
But of course, if there are going to be manned VT(VL) spaceflights happening there, then there will probably be a tower somewhere to support such operations.
I can’t help feeling that launching big fiery objects up into the sky 20kms from Glasgow might be a bad idea…
It is very important that Scotland has a space port, and that taxpayer money is used to fund it. Sigh. This sector is not currently limited by lack of a “space port”.
It’s the current fad, rebranding your airport as a spaceport. It makes your community looking progressive and hi-tech to employers 🙂
Is this a Scottish spaceport America? I certainly hope they are more successful than the aforementioned desert scar….
The picture has some interesting objects in it, I see what appear to be a couple Lynx spacecraft, one WhiteKnightTwo, VG’s Galactic Girl (?), and a Skylon all parked at the hanger. Are they hoping for all of these to bring revenue to the spaceport? I certainly hope they are not rely on VG to make good on their claims in order for this project to be successful. Lynx is on hold and LauncherOne is still a decent question mark….
I count 5 Lynx including the one inside. Perhaps if they place pre-orders for them now then XCOR will have enough money to build the first one 🙂
What I see missing is the only sub-orbital vehicle currently flying, the New Shepard. Guess they want to stick with HTHL systems.
Personally I look at this as an extension of the late 1920’s fad to place Dirigible Masts on skyscrapers to look modern.
http://www.theatlantic.com/…
“What I see missing is the only sub-orbital vehicle currently flying, the New Shepard.”
Let’s assume that the New Shepard is just out of the frame at the moment cause it is busy flying a mission….
” Perhaps if they place pre-orders for them now then XCOR will have enough money to build the first one :-)”
Wouldn’t that be nice? We could only hope
An alternative view
http://taffanaut.blogspot.c…
Article published in August 2014.
“In the short term the spaceport would need to be able to accommodate
suborbital space tourism flights that are likely to start within the
next two years.”
See “Spaceport America”.