A Spaceport For Britain – Launching A Spaceport For Britain – Launching From The United Kingdom.From The United Kingdom.

By Rick NewlandsPresented By Griffith Ingram

Newspace CompaniesNewspace Companies

Xerus Falcon XP Aerospace EADS Astrium Blue Origin SpaceX XCOR Aerospace Masten Space Systems Orbital Sciences Corporation Interorbital Systems

Spaceports – United StatesSpaceports – United States

Spaceports – Rest Of WorldSpaceports – Rest Of World

United Arab Emirates – Dubai, Ras al-Khaimah (in negotiation)

Russia - Baikonur Spaceport Sweden – Kiruna; also planning to use

Esrange as a spaceport, flying Virgin Galactic SS2 flights in 2012

Singapore (in negotiation) Australia - Woomera is closed for business!

Why Not Britain? Why Not Britain?

Technical,Geographical, Legislative hurdles to be overcome?

The Isle of ManThe Isle of Man – Attempting to – Attempting to Encourage Space Industry By:Encourage Space Industry By:

Setting a Zero Rate of Corporate Income Tax for Space-related Activities

Appointing a Director of Space Commerce Specifically to Support the Growth of the Space Industry

Space Companies on Isle of Space Companies on Isle of Man:Man:

InmarsatBoeing Sea Launch Loral SES Global (the world’s largest satellite

operator)

Disadvantages of Isle of ManDisadvantages of Isle of Man

Both the sea around the Isle of Man, and the airspace above it, are very busy

Island is rather land-locked; no clear shot across open ocean to drop spent stages into, or for debris to fall into if it all goes wrong.

Why not UK Mainland?Why not UK Mainland?

Firing east from the UK mainland to chase the International Space Station in its highly inclined orbit will drop spent stages on Europe

Britain is too far from the equator to get into equatorial orbits such as geosynchronous orbit

Ascension IslandAscension Island

DounreayDounreay

Sun-Synchronous Orbit - 1Sun-Synchronous Orbit - 1

Sun-Synchronous Orbit - 2Sun-Synchronous Orbit - 2

The Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands

IcelandIceland

Icelandic FisheriesIcelandic Fisheries

TrajectoryTrajectory

GreenlandGreenland

Greenland National ParkGreenland National Park

Launch OverflightLaunch Overflight

Jan Mayen IslandJan Mayen Island

Svalbard IslandsSvalbard Islands

OilrigsOilrigs North sea is riddled with oilrigs The chances of a rocket falling

on a ship or oilrig are slim, but it would make an awful mess if it did

A safety zone of an area of 0.5 Km radius is established around all offshore oil and gas installations which project above the sea. It is an offence (under section 23 of the Petroleum Act 1987) to enter a safety zone except under special circumstances. So a rocket falling vertically on it would be sure to get fined

Other Items to Avoid - ShipsOther Items to Avoid - Ships

Ships           Obviously, these move around. The sea around the North

coast of Scotland is quite busy (although nothing in comparison to the North Sea). For example, 400 oil tankers and cargo vessels a month (13 a day) pass along the Minch (the water between the Outer Hebrides and the Scottish Mainland).

          There are ways of tracking some of the bigger ships via websites which are updated regularly.These give the GPS position of each ship. The official body we would have to contact are the Maritime and Coastguard Agency who are responsible for shipping safety.

 

Other Items to Avoid - Other Items to Avoid - AircraftAircraft

          Most of the aircraft that might be at risk from the first stage on either trajectory will be flying across the Atlantic to and from the UK and Northern Europe, and so will be following the North Atlantic Tracks (NAT tracks) . These are a series of airways that start at set fixed locations ‘in mid air’ off the coast of Europe and America, and are spaced every degree of lat and long. Whilst there are numerous starting points, only five or so tracks are active on any given day, dependant on the weather and time of year. For example, aircraft flying from America to Europe benefit from intercepting the Jet Stream, a corridor of air travelling at 100 mph. The Nat tracks are therefore aimed to intercept the Jet Stream.The NAT tracks help our situation, because once we’ve downloaded the day’s tracks, we can pinpoint the trajectory of the majority of aircraft; they don’t deviate from the tracks by more than 0.5 Nautical miles. Recently, the Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure (SLOP) allows aircraft to fly at one or two nautical miles laterally off of the track centreline, but again, this is a very small deviation.

          The formal body we would have to contact are Shanwick, the combined Air Traffic Control of Shannon and Prestwick.

          Stornoway airport on the Outer Hebrides is on a major route to one of the track starting points; this is near to the proposed launch site.

Other ProblemsOther Problems

Other Problems            One other notorious aspect of the North of

Scotland is the weather. The aptly named Cape Wrath is up there, it’s just awful in the winter.

         Another argument for lobbing from an aircraft is that the launch can occur above the layer of the atmosphere known as the Troposphere. The Trop is where the weather is, but during the winter it only extends up to about 30,000 feet, so launch at 50,000 feet and you’re well out of it.