Work on what would have been the first operational spaceport on the UK mainland has ground to a halt, with operations shifting to the Shetland Islands.
Construction of the £17m spaceport in Sutherland, in the Scottish Highlands, was to have been led by Jacobs. However, in September that work moved to government and commercial services contractor Amentum after Jacobs spun off the critical mission solutions and cyber and intelligence government services businesses parts of its operations.
But this week the client, aerospace firm Orbex, said that it was pausing work on the Sutherland site and would instead launch its first rockets from SaxaVord, a rival facility on Shetland.
The firm said it would retain its lease to build and operate the Sutherland facility in order to give it flexibility to increase launch capacity in the future.
As recently as last month, Orbex announced that construction tenders including earthworks and excavations would be up for grabs as the site moved into its next stage of development.
But chief executive Phil Chambers said the company was primarily a launch services specialist whose main goal was to support the European space industry by achieving a sustainable series of satellite launches into low Earth orbit.
“This is best achieved by focusing our resources and talents on developing launch vehicles and associated launch services,” he said.
“This decision will help us to reach first launch in 2025 and provides SaxaVord with another customer to further strengthen its commercial proposition.”
He said the decision was a “win-win” for the UK and Scottish economies. Medium-sized space rockets would play an important role in the European space industry in years to come, he added.
“It is part of our strategic plan to offer the market a medium-sized launcher that will compete in Europe for larger payloads,” he said.
“Pausing the construction of our own spaceport enables us to now focus on developing this offering.”
Frank Strang, chief executive of SaxaVord spaceport, said it “made sense” for Orbex to begin operations from the facility as it was already licensed and in a position to support upcoming launches.
“The UK’s space industry is developing very quickly and requires the associated economies of scale and synergies to maintain its competitiveness for launch services from Europe,” he said.
Jacobs was to have led the construction of the Sutherland spaceport, including design, procurement and management of the local supply chain.
Another space project in the UK has generated business for construction firms. In 2021, Willmott Dixon was the main contractor on the development of an aviation centre in Cornwall for a satellite launch business. A test flight took place in 2023.
A spokesperson for Amentum said: “Our work on the project to develop Sutherland Spaceport ceased in November 2023. From our office in Scrabster, we remain strongly committed to supporting the economic regeneration of the Caithness region through our work at Dounreay and the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment and our active membership of the Caithness Chamber of Commerce.”
