Space Boffins, from the Naked Scientists John McFall, Tim Peake and how to build a spaceport
17 snips
Aug 28, 2024 Scott Hammond, operations director at Saxa Vord, keeps launch sites running. Frank Strang, CEO of the Shetland spaceport project, leads development and licensing. Tim Peake, retired ESA astronaut and Axiom advisor, discusses commercial UK missions. John McFall, surgeon and ex-Paralympian, shares work on ESA’s Fly study for people with lower-limb disabilities. They talk building a spaceport, polar launches, commercial missions and accessibility testing.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Commercial Space Appeals Beyond Traditional Sectors
- Commercial missions attract not only traditional space sectors like pharma and material science but also unexpected players like banks via timing and positioning services.
- Tim Peake highlighted UK companies making semiconductors in space and protein crystal work as high-value commercial opportunities.
Saxa Vord Sits On Historic RAF Radar Headland
- Frank Strang described Unst as northerly, Nordic-like, tree-less, with Shetland ponies, orcas, otters and sheep, and the launch site sits on a former RAF radar base.
- He emphasised the site's dramatic coastal location overlooking Saxa Vord hill and integrated launch control at the old RAF base.
High Latitude Helps Polar Launch Efficiency
- High-latitude sites reduce fuel needed for polar orbits because you avoid fighting Earth's rotational velocity present at equator.
- Scott Hammond explained polar launches cover the whole globe every 90 minutes, so northern sites like Unst are efficient for polar orbital insertion.