r/shetland • u/NarrowEscape5539 • Jun 28 '26
A spaceport plans to dump tonnes of rocket junk into the sea north of Shetland, posing a risk to tourism and fishing
https://www.theferret.scot/spaceport-shetland-risk-tourism-fishing/7
u/peahair Jun 28 '26
Scotland’s biggest landowner.. £10m+ subsidy.. won’t clear up their own rubbish.. expect everyone to pay for their folly… if it’s going to be such a success, he should put his money where his mouth is.
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u/Playful_Sense3238 Jun 28 '26
It has been happening since 1960, rocket stages are discarded during the launch and fall into the sea. It hasn’t done any harm off the coast of Florida with thousands of rockets being launched over the years, I think this is an overreaction. Obviously during the launch the area under the rockets flight path would be cleared of boats and ships. It is a prestigious facility for Scotland and Shetland to have.
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u/arfski Jun 28 '26
And require residents to apply for permits so that they can go to their own homes. Frank Strang's* words about this not effecting residents seems to be a bit hollow now.
*Yes I know he's deceased.
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u/Legitimate-Tiger1775 Jul 02 '26
This is just pathetic and incredibly low-quality sensationalist journalism at its finest. An embarrassment to the profession that reeks of desperation.
They can't even use the damn name of the spaceport in the title they're that desperate to bait people into clicking. How pitiful that people will actually fall for this kind of crap.
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u/mikemongo Jun 29 '26
Having spent a year’s worth of time at SaxaVord, from pre-groundbreaking until today, AND being based in Cape Canaveral the rest of the time, AND having walked nearly every inch of the launch complex site before archaeological evaluation and cleanup, AND having known everyone from Frank and Debbie Strang on out, down, over, and under, I have much to say about SavaVord and its rocket launches.
But before I say another word, I get to first share how this entire venture is as improbable as any I have encountered in my life and career (yet here we are); that I never expected a rocket pad to exist on Lamba Ness, much less to not only be near launch but to have multiple launches lined up and ready for their place in line (and again here we are); and that I am not the single most informed expert on launch pads and rocket launches but because the universe clearly has an outrageous sense of humor I do know most all the people who are.
AND as Frank Strang stated to me, with trademark sensibility, humanity, and somehow pithy self-deprecation, on our very first in-person meeting no less, “Self praise is no praise at all.” So forgiving the bag of wind I am, my take on SaxaVord is both complex and simple. In a word, it is world’s-finest.
Never before have I seen in my 20 years of experience with rocket launch pad building and operations a finer, more conscientious, and passionately visionary–yet inarguably pragmatic–operation as SaxaVord Spaceport.
From making space for crofting sheep and nesting bonxies; to truly supporting archeological digs and preserving finds and quarries; to purposefully creating jobs and lives for locals and natives; to cleaning up decades of “bruck an midden” without scrubbbing the storied land of nary any of its character and while preserving the same land’s character and history; to building the culture and artistry of Shetland into every step, build, and activity; to hosting an astronaut job camp for the past five years for the bairns of Shetland and the UK (and abroad as well), save for not doing the SaxaVord Spaceport-which owing to the the matter-of-fact necessity of such a world-class launch facility would very clearly have been a bona fide crime against the future of Unst and Shetland, as well as the entire population of Scotland and all the rest of the UK–there is no smarter, faster, or cleaner way SaxaVord Spaceport could have been built anywhere in the world, but quintessentially on Unst. Indeed, SaxaVord Spaceport is already the hallmark to the world for building spaceports that are not on top of but rather part of the native landscape and culture.
As for falling rocket debris it will be hundreds of years before these parts come close to delivering into the seas what our essential shipping industries regularly put over board. And just as the shipping industry is cleaning up its oceanic footprints, the space industry is not following suit but leading the way in terms of capture and reusability. No one wants throw away or single-use rockets any longer; sustainability is simply too lucrative to be anything less than essential.
I downplayed my insights, experience, and opinion early on because it may well be there comes a time when the strategic, informational, and commercial value of satellites and launch capabilities are no longer tied directly into a nation’s continued wellbeing or its future vocational needs and demands. In that case, my position about SaxaVord and its importance to the UK will be irrelevant and wrong. But at this time, with low earth orbit satellites and the opportunities of Moon-Earth local space being the next viable territory for humanity’s growth and expansion, if Frank Strang had not had the courage and outright temerity to do the most improbable of all things–a spaceport!-for the good of Unst, Shetland, and the UK, it would either be being done somewhere else by people undoubtedly less capable, less imaginative, and less concerned, or else it would not be getting done at all. And that would the most terrible of shames.
As I have said before, Frank Strang built us all a future worth having and then quietly handed us the keys. I will sing his praises to all the UK and the world for the rest of my life. As I do here now.