A  Droitwich woman is behind Western Europe’s first fully-licensed spaceport for vertical launches.

Debbie Strang and her husband Frank bought SaxaVord radar station on Unst, the UK’s most northerly inhabited island, from the Ministry of Defence with the intention of turning it into an eco-tourism attraction. 

But their plans changed when the Government started looking for potential sites for vertical launches of small rockets carrying satellites, and they set about winning support from locals, investors and the Shetland Islands Council for their new company, SaxaVord Spaceport, which employs more than 80 staff.

Former Droitwich Spa High School pupil Debbie, 58, whose late mother Eileen was Mayor of Droitwich, told the BBC:  “I never thought I would be involved in space. Even though we are five years into the journey, I still find it surreal but incredibly exciting that we are working on this.

“The biggest challenge is that every element of the spaceport development is being done for the first time, and there is no UK pool of people from which to recruit. To overcome this we have recruited very able people with transferable skills who are adaptable, determined and patient.”

Frank, who met Debbie when they were RAF officers serving at Lossiemouth air station on Scotland’s north-east coast, said: “The biggest challenge was getting people to believe that we were real. Gaining planning permission was a long process, but once we got through that work started immediately.”

He described the awarding of the licence as “historic” and added: “Our team is very proud that the Government has entrusted us with operating a complex, multi-disciplinary and multi-launch spaceport, and we all take this responsibility very seriously.”

The licence permits up to 30 launches from Unst a year.  The first is expected to take place this year (2024) and will be a test mission to send a rocket made by German company HyImpulse up to a height of 29 miles. Full orbital launches are expected to take place from 2025.

Getting to Unst is a bit of a mission in itself: a flight from mainland UK, then one ferry and then another ferry. However, its remoteness, and relatively quiet airspace, are two of the reasons Unst could soon be something of a super highway into space.

Tim Johnson, director of space regulation at the Civil Aviation Authority, remarked: “Granting SaxaVord its licence is an era-defining moment for the UK space sector. This marks the beginning of a new chapter for UK space as rockets may soon launch satellites into orbit from Scotland.”

UK transport Secretary Mark Harper said the move would boost the Shetland Island’s economy and “put the United Kingdom at the forefront of spaceflight innovation”.

Cornwall Spaceport was the UK’s first licensed spaceport. However, its rockets are launched horizontally, carried by an aircraft.

For a video about the background to SaxaVord click here and for an ITV News report on the granting of the licence click here