Welcome to our in-depth analysis of SaxaVord Spaceport, originally published January 18th, 2023 and most recently updated October 7th, 2026 Updated content. Make sure to check out our mission statement and why we do what we do. Look at our New Space guide if you want explanations of terms and concepts used in our research. And follow us on X for updates.
October 2026 update: licensed, no launch yet
- Launches: No rocket has launched from Unst as of October 7th, 2026. SaxaVord has held a spaceport licence from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) since December 15th, 2023, and Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has held a launch licence for its RFA ONE rocket since January 2025. RFA stacked the rocket on its pad in July 2026, found a problem while pressurising it and took it down again, so the launch window from August 10th to September 14th, 2026 was dropped. HyImpulse received its licence on September 28th, 2026 and now plans its first flight from Unst for spring 2027.
- Money: The group lost GBP 5.4 million before tax in 2024 on revenue of GBP 2.5 million and had GBP 0.9 million in cash at the end of the year, and the auditor flagged a material uncertainty on going concern. After year end the company breached the terms of a GBP 10.6 million loan, the size of the UK Government’s GBP 10 million convertible loan notes from 2024 plus interest. On September 8th, 2026 the government promised another GBP 30 million, subject to due diligence, to finish the pads.
- Valuation: Investors paid GBP 1.00 per share in 2022, and loan notes converted into shares at GBP 0.24 in late 2024. We estimate the company was worth GBP 35 – 50 million in 2024, against about GBP 76 million at the 2022 price.
- Company: Founder and CEO Frank Strang died on August 12th, 2025 and Scott Hammond took over as CEO a week later. Wild Ventures, the investment company of Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, held 55.7% of the shares in January 2026, up from 26.4% in January 2022, while the founders’ share fell from 30% to 10%.
- Site: One of the three approved pads (“Fredo”, leased to RFA) is built, and the first integration hangar opened in November 2025.
What you should know about SaxaVord Spaceport
📰 For space enthusiasts
- Only UK site licensed for vertical launch, on the Lamba Ness peninsula of Unst, Shetland
- No launch yet (October 2026). First launches were promised for 2022
- Three approved pads (“Fredo”, “Elizabeth”, “Calum”), one built (Fredo, used by RFA)
- Up to 30 launches a year, at most 4 a month, none from mid-May to the end of June (bird breeding)
- Polar and sun-synchronous orbits, launching north over the sea
- Satellite ground station at Baltasound with two antennas
💰 For VCs and industry experts
- Majority owner Wild Ventures (Anders Holch Povlsen) with 55.7% (January 2026). Founders together about 10%
- 2024: revenue GBP 2.5 million, loss before tax GBP 5.4 million, cash GBP 0.9 million (group accounts)
- Going-concern doubt and a loan default on GBP 10.6 million after year end 2024
- About GBP 30 million of fresh equity raised from 2018 to 2025, by our count of the share filings
- Share price down from GBP 1.00 (2022) to GBP 0.24 (2024). We estimate a value of GBP 35 – 50 million in 2024
- GBP 139 million debt facility announced to MPs in May 2023 never appeared in the accounts
- Public money: GBP 10 million government loan (2024), GBP 30 million promised in September 2026
👨💻 For potential employees
- Average 70 staff in 2024, up from 21 in 2021 (accounts)
- Jobs on Unst (launch site) and in Grantown-on-Spey (head office)
- Range operations, launch site engineering, security, training, finance and commercial roles
- Engineers up to GBP 50,000, range operations GBP 30,000 – 35,000, training manager up to GBP 60,000 (2026 job ads)
- No open positions listed in October 2026

SaxaVord Spaceport: UK orbital launch site on Unst, Shetland
SaxaVord Spaceport, located in the Shetland Islands all the way in northern Scotland, set out to become the largest orbital spaceport in the UK and possibly in Europe. The company behind it, Shetland Space Centre Limited, was founded in September 2017 and set out to build launch pads for orbital rockets, a satellite tracking station, housing for crew and tourists, and even to revive an old airport.
The project started as a way to bring work back to Unst after the RAF left, run by a group of determined Scots who had never built anything for space before. By October 2026 it had a spaceport licence, a range licence, one finished pad and no launch.

“From the Longship to the Spaceship”: Economic decline in the Shetland Islands
The SaxaVord Spaceport – officially the Shetland Space Centre Ltd. – is based on the island of Unst, the northernmost island in the Shetlands. With a history dating back to the Vikings, coming over on Longships to the Scottish islands, Unst has been a popular place for military, naval and fishing operations until the end of the 20th century.
The closing of the local Baltasound Airport in 1996 and the shutting down of the RAF Saxa Vord radar station in 2006 led to economic decline and a loss of hundreds of jobs in the region over the last two decades. The population on the island has dwindled almost 50% in the last three decades, down to a mere 700.
Frank Strang, an RAF veteran and local from Sutherland in the Highlands, was doing his part to keep his businesses and the economy on the island going. The father of two and trained physical education teacher, who was forced to leave the RAF after breaking his back parachuting, was running several successful businesses in Unst over the last decades. After RAF Saxa Vord’s closure, he purchased the domestic facilities of the RAF site and turned them into the Saxa Vord Resort, a holiday resort for tourists visiting the Shetlands. With the goal of regenerating the old military facilities on the island, times were tough, and his companies were facing difficult economic circumstances.

“Did you know Shetland is the best location for rocket launches?” (2017 – 2018)
Enter the UK Space Agency (UKSA). In 2017, the UKSA held a competition to stimulate interest in a launch on Scottish soil through the pathfinder program. Informing landowners and businessman throughout the country of the idea, both Strang and the space agency soon realized that Shetland was, in fact, the best place in the UK to launch rockets. Remote geography, existing infrastructure and low population meant the Shetlands scored high in each regard. Seeing the opportunity, Strang invited government officials, industry experts and public members to a Space Symposium to show them the potential of a Shetland islands launch site.

It must have been later in the year 2017 when Strang got a call from ArianeGroup’s Olivier Reuther: “We should meet up.” After a 3-day visit from Reuther, both ArianeGroup and Shetland Space Centre decided to work closely together, picking a potential launch site, designing the spaceport and analyzing infrastructure. The public announcement of their cooperation led to interest from other aerospace companies, including Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense and aerospace conglomerates.
Building a team: Hard work and uncertainty (2018 – 2019)
The team at this point in early 2018 consisted of only 4 employees. Needing all sorts of expertise for what potentially lay ahead, Strang appointed a team of 8 directors: The core team, made up of himself, Scott Hammond, an RAF veteran and trained pilot as his right hand man and deputy CEO, and his wife Debbie Strang and Bill Gibb, who both ran several smaller businesses on the island, as COO and CFO respectively. They would be supported by Christopher Phillips, a finance guru who chaired the board from 2018 to 2026, vice-chair Brian Wilson, a former government minister, non-executive director Todd Ruppert, another finance geek with 40 years of experience, and Tavish Scott, then the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Shetland, whose father owns the land the spaceport sits on.
| Role | Name (October 2026) |
|---|---|
| CEO | Scott Hammond (since August 19th, 2025; co-founder, deputy CEO before) |
| Deputy CEO | Debbie Strang (co-founder, COO until August 2025) |
| Finance director | Mairi Prior (on the board since August 14th, 2025) |
| Board | Lise Kaae (CEO of Heartland, Povlsen’s investment company), Allegra Stratton, Todd Ruppert, Lord David Willetts |
| Founder and CEO 2017 – 2025 | Frank Strang MBE (1958 – 2025) |
The founding directors, with an average age of about 60 in the early years, combined skills from aviation, defence, oil & gas and finance into the spaceport plan. Still lacking official government support and running on fumes, they used internal funds for the first years and fought politics plus new competition from Sutherland Spaceport to the south.
This all changed when they secured their first big investment in 2020 – or so it seemed…
First breakthrough – and run-ins with all kinds of shady people… (2020)
A GBP 2 million investment for a 20% stake – suddenly valuing the company a proper GBP 10 million, was landed in February 2020. National and international media reported on the investment, massively boosting the Shetland spaceport’s chances of success.
Unfortunately, the deal wasn’t what it seemed. The investment firm – a mostly empty UK company named Leonne Investments – was headed by a 30-something trickster. Using different names, telling different stories and having had run-ins with the law for accusations of fraud, he talked Strang into an asset-deal valued at GBP 2 million for shares in his company Leonne, while deferring payments in 10 installments over the next months. The share filing of February 2020 names the company whose shares SaxaVord took in payment as Leonreed Limited, at a value of GBP 2 million.
The payments, however – we suspect – soon stopped. Leonne had already offloaded hundreds of thousands of their 4,346,000 shares to dozens of individuals and companies, inflating the Shetland Space Centre’s shareholder register. Right around this time, the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) issued a warning against Leonne.
Strang and his team, in the matter of weeks, must have gone from elation to finding themselves in the middle of another battle. With the help of the board’s experience, the team quickly issued emergency resolutions, cancelled pre-emption rights for the 4.3 million shares to stop them from being resold and moved against Leonne. The deal was unwound in 2021, apart from the shares already resold. In July 2021 SaxaVord bought back shares for a total of GBP 1.

It’s time to build (2021 – 2023)
In what must have been an absolute rollercoaster year 2020, things turned around. The faux investment generated enough PR and financial runway to convince partners and the public of the Shetland Space Centre’s feasibility. In late 2020, Lockheed Martin, the aerospace behemoth, announced its plan to move the UK Pathfinder Launch to the Shetland Islands.
A month later, in November 2020, Danish billionaire and largest landowner in northern Scotland, Anders Holch Povlsen, invested GBP 1.5 million into SaxaVord through his Wild Ventures company. Providing hard cash that the company desperately needed, the plans for the spaceport licences were submitted in January 2021.
In August 2021 Wild Ventures became the company’s main shareholder with more than 25% of the shares, and in March 2022 Shetland Islands Council granted planning permission for the spaceport. Investors then paid GBP 1.00 per share in rounds from December 2021 to February 2023, worth about GBP 12 million. The first concrete launch stool was finished on pad “Fredo” in November 2022, and in January 2023 RFA signed up as the first launch customer with exclusive use of that pad.
In May 2023 Frank Strang told the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee that SaxaVord had “just secured a £139 million debt facility from the markets”. Construction stopped a month later, in June 2023, and Strang later confirmed that problems with the facility were the reason, while contractors waited months for their money. New shares were sold at GBP 0.315 in June 2023, about a third of the price a few months earlier. The CAA granted the spaceport licence on December 15th, 2023.
Licensed, tested, not launched (2024 – 2026)
The UK Budget of March 2024 announced GBP 10 million of government money for SaxaVord. It arrived in May 2024 as convertible loan notes at 10% interest, repayable in May 2027 unless converted into shares. The CAA issued the range licence in April 2024 and said it was “not in itself permission to launch”. SaxaVord declared the spaceport open on May 29th, 2024.
RFA fired four engines of its first stage on pad Fredo in May 2024, the first rocket firing at SaxaVord. On August 19th, 2024, during a test with all nine engines, a fire broke out and the stage was lost on the pad, without injuries to anyone. RFA said the pad needed only minor repairs inside the launch stool. There were no tests on the site in 2025.
RFA received its launch licence in January 2025, and Skyrora received one for Skylark L flights in July 2025. In its accounts for 2023, signed in December 2024, the board wrote of “a launch expected in 2025”. In July 2025 Frank Strang announced that he had terminal cancer, and he died on August 12th, 2025, aged 67. The space minister opened the first integration hangar, “rocket hall 1”, in November 2025. Orbex, which had moved its launches to SaxaVord in December 2024, went into administration in February 2026 without having started work on the site.
The accounts for 2024, signed in March 2026, expected the first launch “in the first half of 2026” and reported a breach of the GBP 10.6 million loan. A new RFA first stage arrived in February 2026. In July 2026 RFA stacked the full rocket on the pad and pressurised it for the first time, found a problem with the vehicle and took it down again on July 28th. SaxaVord dropped the launch window of August 10th to September 14th, 2026 a week later. On September 8th, 2026 the UK Government committed GBP 30 million, subject to due diligence, to a GBP 60 million plan to complete “all three launchpads” and a second hangar. HyImpulse got its launch licence on September 28th, 2026.
The SaxaVord Spaceport: This is what you can expect
The SaxaVord Spaceport sits at about 60.8° north, roughly the same latitude as Oslo in Norway or Anchorage in Alaska. The location was one of many analyzed by the UK Space Agency from 2017 and won out against 11 competitors by a fair margin. It has one of the best locations for polar and sun-synchronous orbits and faces only the Norwegian sea all the way to the arctic.
The site is in the northeastern part of the island of Unst on the “Lamba Ness” peninsula, roughly 3 kilometres by 500 meters, with room for three rocket launch complexes for suborbital and orbital rockets. Each launch complex has a launch pad, ground services storage and control, 40 meter lightning protection masts and storage tanks for propellants. The pads are called “Fredo”, “Elizabeth”, named after the late queen, and “Calum”. Only Fredo was built by October 2026, and RFA has exclusive use of it for orbital launches.


The plans include a launch site processing facility (LSPF) with the largest buildings on site: two hangars 13 meters high, measuring 28 meters by 68 meters. The first hangar, “rocket hall 1”, opened in November 2025, and the second is part of the GBP 60 million plan of September 2026. An administration building, a gate house with tourist information and a wildlife hide were also planned.

A lighter interpretation of the launch facilities from the company’s Education Strategy Guide (2022):

SaxaVord also runs a satellite ground station, which tracks satellites and downloads their data. The first equipment arrived in July 2021 and was installed at Baltasound airport. The company says it now has two antennas there (from 2021 and 2024) handling more than 1,300 satellite contacts a month, and the ground station brought in GBP 242,085 of revenue in 2024.

SaxaVord also planned to bring Baltasound airport, closed in 1996, back into use for the spaceport and the island. We found no announcement that it has reopened.
Business operations of the SaxaVord spaceport: 30 launches per year
The business rests on two parts: the launch site and the satellite ground station. The spaceport licence allows up to 30 launches a year, at most 4 a month and one a night, for rockets carrying up to 1,500 kg to low-earth-orbit. That gives a maximum potential annual payload of 45,000 kg to LEO, on par with, for example, Andøya Space.
In May 2023 Strang told a House of Commons committee that the company would later ask the CAA to raise the limit to 40 to 50 launches a year.
Each launch campaign is expected to take about 4 weeks from the delivery of vehicle and payload to launch. Launches and engine tests are not allowed from mid-May to the end of June, to protect breeding birds. The weather, as it turns out, is not a large issue and the port has about as many launch windows per year as Cape Canaveral, according to Scott Hammond (CEO since August 2025).
SaxaVord itself grew from a team of 4 in 2018 to an average of 70 employees in 2024, according to the accounts.
Financials: Funding and investments
SaxaVord files its accounts with Companies House under the name Shetland Space Centre Limited. The latest are the group accounts for 2024, audited by Johnston Carmichael and filed on April 1st, 2026. Revenue grew from GBP 0.5 million in 2022 to GBP 2.5 million in 2024, and the loss before tax grew with it, from GBP 2.1 million in 2021 to GBP 5.4 million in 2024. Of the 2024 revenue, GBP 1.24 million came from launch services, GBP 0.69 million from accommodation and GBP 0.24 million from the ground station, with the rest from costs passed on to customers.

The site itself had GBP 32.9 million of buildings and equipment on the balance sheet at the end of 2024. Cash fell from GBP 4.1 million at the end of 2021 to GBP 0.1 million at the end of 2023 and stood at GBP 0.9 million at the end of 2024. In both the 2023 and 2024 accounts the auditor reported a material uncertainty about whether the company can keep going, because the next fundraise was not yet secured.
The filed accounts show a different debt picture from the press releases. In May 2023 Strang told MPs about the GBP 139 million debt facility, but no such facility appears in any of the filed accounts. Investors lent the company GBP 10.5 million in convertible loan notes by the end of 2023, GBP 9.4 million of it at 36% interest a year from December 2023, and all of it converted into shares during 2024. The UK Government then lent GBP 10 million at 10% from May 2024, on condition that the company keeps at least GBP 300,000 in cash at all times. After the end of 2024 the company triggered what the accounts call a “Technical Event of Default” on a loan balance of GBP 10.6 million. The lender was willing to waive it on conditions that had not been met when the accounts were signed in March 2026. The company told The Telegraph in April 2026 that this was a “minor technical matter” and that a new funding round would close in the first half of 2026. We found no report of that round closing by October 7th, 2026.
Until 2024 SaxaVord was built mostly with private money. In May 2023 Strang told MPs the company had “spent £28 million of our money” since planning permission in March 2022. Public money came later, and most of it after the first missed launch dates:
| Public money for SaxaVord itself | From | Promised at the time | What happened by October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP 15,000 grant (2019) | Highlands and Islands Enterprise | A study of balloon-launched rockets from Unst | No balloon launch from Unst |
| GBP 378,000 grant (December 2022) | UK Space Agency | A launch rail for suborbital rockets, with launches “early next year” (2023) | No launch from the rail. SaxaVord paused the project and told European Spaceflight in September 2026 that it will not restart |
| GBP 10 million loan (May 2024) | UK Government | “to support orbital launch in 2024” (Budget, March 2024) | No launch in 2024, 2025 or 2026. Loan terms breached after the end of 2024, GBP 10.6 million outstanding |
| GBP 30 million, subject to due diligence (September 2026) | UK Government, UK Space Strategy | “regular orbital launch activity from the UK”, with all three pads and a second hangar | Not yet paid |
| Public money for rockets meant to launch from SaxaVord | Company | Promised at the time | What happened by October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP 23.5 million (2018) | Lockheed Martin (UK Pathfinder) | A first launch, expected from Unst in 2022 | No launch. The rocket maker ABL left the launch business in 2024 |
| GBP 3.5 million (2023) | RFA | A launch in the second quarter of 2024 | No launch. First stage lost in a test fire in August 2024, 2026 window dropped |
| GBP 8.8 million (2022 – 2024, three awards) | HyImpulse | Motor tests in Shetland and a suborbital flight from SaxaVord (2024) | Tests done. Flight now planned for spring 2027 |
| GBP 26 million (2025) | Orbex | A first launch “from late 2025” at SaxaVord | No launch. Orbex went into administration in February 2026 |
By our count, about GBP 100 million of public money has been committed to SaxaVord and to the rockets meant to fly from it, and GBP 72 million of it has already been awarded. Not one of the promised launches has happened.
Control moved from the founders to Wild Ventures. In January 2022 the founders (Frank and Debbie Strang, Scott Hammond and Bill Gibb) held 30.4% of the shares and Wild Ventures 26.4%. By January 2026 Wild Ventures held 55.7%, Global Prime Partners, a London wealth manager, held 19.6% and the founders 10.3%. The accounts name Anders Holch Povlsen as the ultimate controlling party. The company had 161 shareholders in January 2026.

Shetland Space Centre is a private limited company with 173,686,004 shares at a nominal value of GBP 0.00001 each (December 2025). According to the share filings, the company sold new shares for about GBP 42 million from 2018 to 2025:
| Period | Raised | Price per share |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 – 2020 | GBP 0.9 million | GBP 0.15 – 0.46 |
| Dec 2020 – Oct 2021 | GBP 5.3 million | GBP 0.15 – 0.20 |
| Dec 2021 – Feb 2023 | GBP 12.1 million | GBP 0.20 – 1.00 |
| Jun 2023 – Jan 2024 | GBP 13.3 million | GBP 0.15 – 1.00 |
| Mar – Aug 2024 | GBP 0.9 million | GBP 0.10 – 0.80 |
| Sep – Dec 2024 | GBP 9.2 million | GBP 0.24 (loan notes converted) |
| 2025 | GBP 0.3 million | GBP 0.01 – 0.80 (warrants) |
About GBP 12 million of this came from loan notes converted into shares, so the fresh cash from shareholders was about GBP 30 million.
The company was valued at GBP 5 million in 2019 and GBP 10 million in 2020 through the first two rounds. Since then the share filings give the price of every round, so we estimate the value as the price per share times all shares in issue:
| When | Price per share | Shares in issue | Value (estimated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 rounds | GBP 1.00 | 76.2 million | GBP 76 million |
| June 2023 | GBP 0.315 | 82.5 million | GBP 26 million |
| Nov 2023 – Jan 2024 (two prices, average) | GBP 0.41 | 106.5 million | GBP 43 million |
| Late 2024 (loan notes converted) | GBP 0.24 | 156.4 million | GBP 38 – 47 million |
On this basis we estimate the company was worth GBP 35 – 50 million in 2024, half of the 2022 value, and there has been no priced round since. One more number from the accounts fits that picture: when the company granted share options to its directors in early 2023, it put the share price at GBP 0.575, weeks after selling new shares at GBP 1.00.
Starting the business: Launch contracts with RFA, HyImpulse, Skyrora and others
In terms of business operations, the company has been making small but steady revenue from the ground station operations based at Baltasound airport. For launch operations, the biggest announcements were obviously the signing of Lockheed Martin and ABL for the UK’s “Pathfinder Launch” in 2020. Lockheed was given over GBP 20 million in governmental support, and some of those funds were expected to support SaxaVord’s infrastructure, directly or indirectly.
In 2021, SaxaVord partnered with continental launch providers to use their facilities. HyImpulse, the German aerospace company developing a unique hybrid engine rocket, was already using the existing facilities on the island to conduct engine tests. Skyrora, the UK based company that develops the Skyrora XL, announced launch contract closures at SaxaVord in October 2021 and Latitude, the French launch startup, joined in 2022 as well.
In January 2023, the so far biggest announcement was made. RFA, Rocket Factory Augsburg, one of the largest European launch startups backed by German aerospace conglomerate OHB SE, would use SaxaVord as its main spaceport. They also committed to an 8-figure investment into the Scottish spaceport over the coming years.
As of May 2023, RFA had installed infrastructure including the launch stool worth around EUR 13 million. HyImpulse and Latitude had both done extensive testing on the site, and RFA planned a first-and-second-stage test for July 2023. That test did not happen, and RFA’s first engine firing at SaxaVord took place in May 2024.
| Launch provider | Status in October 2026 |
|---|---|
| | Launch licence January 2025. Window of August – September 2026 dropped, no new date |
HyImpulse | Launch licence September 2026 for one SR75 flight a year. Planned for spring 2027 |
Skyrora | Launch licence July 2025 for Skylark L (CAA: up to 16 launches a year, each needing CAA approval). No contract with SaxaVord (November 2025) |
| Orbex | Moved its launches to SaxaVord in December 2024. In administration since February 2026 |
| ABL’s rocket was destroyed in a fire in July 2024 and ABL left the launch business. No outcome announced | |
Latitude (VOS) | Agreement in 2022. No licence, no date |
Astra | Agreement in 2021. No licence, no date |
C6 Launch | Agreement in 2021. No licence, no date |
Launch timeline: promised dates and what happened
In our 2023 review the best case was a suborbital flight from Skyrora or HyImpulse in 2023 and orbital attempts in the second half of 2024. The company, its customers and its own accounts have given a new first-launch date roughly every few months since then:
| Said in | By | First launch expected |
|---|---|---|
| October 2021 | Frank Strang | “next year” (2022) |
| November 2022 | Frank Strang | spring and summer 2023 |
| January 2023 | RFA | end of 2023 |
| March 2024 | Frank Strang | “between August and late autumn” 2024 |
| November 2024 | RFA | 2025 |
| December 2024 | SaxaVord accounts for 2023 | 2025 |
| February 2025 | Scott Hammond | “two or three test launch attempts” in 2025 |
| March 2026 | SaxaVord accounts for 2024 | first half of 2026 |
| July 2026 | SaxaVord | window from August 10th, 2026 |
| October 2026 | HyImpulse | spring 2027 |
None of these dates held, and no rocket had launched from Unst by October 7th, 2026. The planning rules ban launches from mid-May to the end of June, so a spring 2027 flight has to happen before mid-May. Let’s talk again in spring 2027.


Working at SaxaVord: Salary, opportunities and skills required
SaxaVord’s staff grew from an average of 21 people in 2021 to 70 in 2024, according to the accounts. The numbers the company gave in public were higher: “as many as 60” in December 2022, when the accounts show an average of 41 for that year, and “80 employees today” to MPs in May 2023, against an average of 61 for 2023. In 2023 the company also said it planned to reach 100 employees that year and 200 in 2024, and hired Cammach Bryant for recruiting.

The company advertises jobs on its own website. In 2026 the ads offered up to GBP 50,000 for mechanical and electrical engineers and launch site electricians, and up to GBP 60,000 for a learning and development manager. Range operations paid up to GBP 30,000 for an assistant and up to GBP 35,000 for a coordinator, and security officers got GBP 15 an hour. Most jobs are on Unst, with the head office in Grantown-on-Spey in the Highlands. From 2022 to 2024 SaxaVord also had an office in Munich, Germany, for its German customers such as HyImpulse and RFA. In October 2026 the website listed no open positions.
People and succession (2024 – 2026)
Frank Strang MBE co-founded Shetland Space Centre in 2017 with Scott Hammond and Debbie Strang and led it as CEO through the spaceport and range licences. He died of cancer on August 12th, 2025, aged 67. A week later the board made Hammond, until then deputy CEO, the new CEO, and Debbie Strang moved from chief operating officer to deputy CEO. Mairi Prior, the finance chief, joined the board.
Former Downing Street spokesperson Allegra Stratton joined in September 2024, and Lise Kaae, CEO of Povlsen’s investment company Heartland, in January 2025. Bill Gibb left in February 2025, and the long-serving chairman Christopher Phillips and vice-chairman Brian Wilson left in spring 2026. Lord David Willetts, a former science minister, joined on May 1st, 2026 and spoke as “chair of SaxaVord spaceport” in the House of Lords in July 2026. According to the Shetland Times he has also chaired the board of the UK Space Agency since 2022, the agency behind most of the grants in the public money table above.
My opinion on SaxaVord Spaceport and why you should keep an eye on them
What I like about SaxaVord
- Private Enterprise: For its first six years the spaceport ran almost entirely on private money. The founders put up the first funds, and about 160 shareholders then bought around GBP 30 million of new shares. Public money came late and small at first: a GBP 15,000 grant from Highlands and Islands Enterprise in 2019, a GBP 378,000 UK Space Agency grant for a launch rail in December 2022, and then a GBP 10 million government loan in 2024. Local founders started this project and carried the risk themselves, with no committee behind them.
- Speed: Planning permission came in March 2022, and RFA fired its first engines on the finished pad in May 2024, two years later. That is fast by European standards.
- Old School: The founders and directors were, on average, over 60 years old when they started. Most people are looking towards retirement at this age. Instead, “Strang and the Gang” built a spaceport with GBP 32.9 million of buildings and equipment by 2024, for the future and economy of a whole island.
- Quite a ride: What do a Danish billionaire, the Woking Railway Athletics Club and a company named Thumbelina the Big Blue Whale Ltd. have in common? They’re all shareholders in the Shetland Space Centre. We might never find out what really happened with the Leonne investment in early 2020, but this will surely make one hell of a story to share over a bottle of Shetland Gin.
What I don’t like about SaxaVord
- Environmental concerns: No, I don’t mean I have environmental concerns about the spaceport, I have concerns about the environmental concerns that are an instinctive public reaction to any kind of change. SaxaVord has done enormous amounts to take into account environmental concerns and has the largest landowner of the Highlands with a vested interest in conserving the local landscape and nature. Feel free to go through the 3,000+ pages of environmental analysis done by Saxavord, or contact the company’s dedicated sustainability officer directly for any further questions.
- Dates: More than 30 dated first-launch promises since 2021, and none held. The company’s own audited accounts said “a launch expected in 2025” and then “the first half of 2026”.
- The GBP 139 million facility: Strang told MPs in May 2023 that the facility was secured. It never appeared in the accounts, construction stopped a month later, and contractors waited for their money.
- Public money after missed dates: The government lent GBP 10 million in 2024, the company breached the loan terms after the end of that year, and the government promised GBP 30 million more in September 2026, all before a single launch. That is public money following missed targets, and it should come with dated milestones.
Things to watch out for
- SaxaVord 2050: A spaceport is an infrastructure project for decades. The main shareholder is Wild Ventures Ltd., the venture arm of Danish billionaire Povlsen, so there is certainly extensive business knowledge, firepower and long-term perspective. With GBP 10 million of government loans and GBP 30 million more promised, the UK government now has a stake in how the site develops, and there could be political “input” over the next years on how to proceed.
- Time to launch: RFA named a new CEO, Alexander Dahm, on October 5th, 2026 and has not given a new launch date. HyImpulse plans its SR75 for spring 2027, which has to happen before the bird season ban in mid-May.
- Money: The funding round the company expected in the first half of 2026 has not been reported as closed, and the GBP 30 million from the government still needs final sign-off. The accounts for 2025 are due at Companies House by December 30th, 2026.
- Board: SaxaVord’s chair, Lord Willetts, is also chair of the UK Space Agency board according to the Shetland Times (May 2026), while SaxaVord is in breach of a GBP 10.6 million government loan and waiting for GBP 30 million more.
Looking ahead: what still has to be delivered
Strang and his co-founders were, in a way, just getting started when we first wrote this review in January 2023. After his death in August 2025 the company continued under Scott Hammond as CEO, with Debbie Strang as deputy CEO, a spaceport licence, one finished pad and no launch by October 2026.
“I’ve had successes, and I’ve had failures in business, and I would say that this project is probably a combination of all the various skill sets that I’ve developed over the years”, he said in the interviews behind the original review. “Life’s a journey, and it takes you on a certain route, and where I am today is probably where I am going to end up.”
Structured company information on Shetland Space Centre Limited
| Type | Information |
|---|---|
| Official Company Name | Shetland Space Centre Limited (trading as SaxaVord Spaceport) |
| Company number | SC575537 (Companies House) |
| Founded in | September 5th, 2017 |
| Management | Scott Hammond (CEO), Debbie Strang (deputy CEO), Mairi Prior (finance director) |
| Main shareholder | Wild Ventures Limited (55.7%, January 2026). Ultimate controlling party: Anders Holch Povlsen |
| Headquarter | Orbital House, 15 Castle Road, Grantown-on-Spey, PH26 3HN, Scotland |
| Launch Site | Lamba Ness, Unst, Shetland |
| Ground station | Baltasound, Unst, Shetland |
| Subsidiary | Europe Space Centre GmbH (Germany) |
| Latest accounts | Group accounts for 2024, filed April 1st, 2026 |
| [email protected] | |
| Website | saxavord.com |
| SaxaVord Spaceport | |
| saxavordspace | |
| X | SaxaVord_Space |
More information on SaxaVord Spaceport
- Check out their website or follow SaxaVord on X, LinkedIn or Instagram
- Listen to Frank Strang on how he got into the project
- Read the testimony of May 17th, 2023 by Frank Strang and Dave Ballance (Launch Operations Manager) in front of the House of Commons
- Look up the company’s accounts and shareholder lists at Companies House
- Check the CAA register of launch and spaceport licences
Update from October 2026 on SaxaVord Spaceport
- SaxaVord received its spaceport licence (December 2023) and range licence (April 2024). RFA, Skyrora and HyImpulse received launch licences for the site
- RFA lost a first stage in a test fire on the pad in August 2024 and dropped its 2026 launch window. No rocket has launched from Unst
- Founder and CEO Frank Strang died in August 2025, and Scott Hammond became CEO
- Wild Ventures (Povlsen) took majority control, the company breached the terms of a GBP 10.6 million loan, and the government promised GBP 30 million more
- The review now includes the accounts for 2021 to 2024, the share filings and our valuation estimate, the public money table, the list of promised launch dates, and the staff numbers in the accounts
Update from May 2023 on SaxaVord Spaceport
In May 2023, after Frank Strang’s testimony to the House of Commons, the review recorded the following points as of that date:
- SaxaVord hoped to get its launch licence by August 2023. The licence applied for was for 30 launches
- Down the line, SaxaVord wants to potentially expand to 40 to 50 launches
- They spent GBP 28 million so far of private money with no significant public funding
- They said they had secured a GBP 139 million debt facility
- Employing about 80 people at that time
Related reviews: Andøya Space Center, Space Hub Sutherland, Rocket Factory Augsburg, HyImpulse, Isar Aerospace, Skyrora, Latitude, Orbex, PLD Space.
Want to read more about the European NewSpace industry?
- Santa Maria SpaceportSanta Maria in the Azores holds Portugal’s only launch site licence. We look at who runs it, what has flown, who paid and what was promised since 2018.
- Ariane 6Ariane 6 was ordered in 2014 to fly in 2020 and first flew in July 2024. Nine flights, about EUR 6.6 billion of public commitments, up to EUR 340 million a year in operating support, no published price and no reuse. How it compares with Falcon 9, Vulcan, H3 and China’s rockets.
- Guiana Space Centre (Kourou)Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana flew 7 launches in 2025, against 11 a year a decade ago. Its new small-launcher pads were promised for 2024 and have hosted no launch. Who holds the slots, who pays for the base, and how it compares with Florida, China’s Hainan and Rocket Lab.
- European Space Launch Companies Ranking 2026Ten European launch companies scored on flight record, 2026 cadence, launch site, money and team: Ariane 6, Vega C and Isar lead, Orbex is out, and seven of ten have not reached orbit. With private vs public funding per company.
- Esrange Space CenterEsrange near Kiruna has launched more than 600 sounding rockets but no orbital rocket. The first orbital launch, promised for 2020, is now set for 2028, paid for by the Swedish state.
For any questions, feedback or information on sources, feel free to contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter.

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