Scotland has - for the moment at least - lost one of its five potential spaceports and while some may not like it, this should neither come as a surprise nor be viewed as a negative development.

That said, many were caught off guard last week when Orbex announced that it is mothballing its £20 million launch facility on the A'Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland. Rockets built at the company's headquarters in Forres will instead take off from rival spaceport SaxaVord in Shetland, possibly as early as next year.

Journalists were taken on tours as recently as late August to view progress on the "floating road" over the peat bog where Sutherland Spaceport was under construction, with Orbex emphasising the steps being taken to minimise the impact on the environment. In October, Highland Council granted planning permission to shift tracking antennas to a nearby mountaintop.

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Orbex switches strategy with SaxaVord space launch plans

Work was still progressing in November, when project contractor Dynamic Concepts released tenders for phases three and four of construction.

But just hours before Finance Secretary Shona Robison stood up to deliver the Scottish budget on December 4, Orbex chief executive Phil Chambers announced that the company was "pausing" construction at Sutherland to boost production of its smaller Prime rocket and put more funding into development of a medium-sized launch vehicle known as Proxima. It is believed the move will allow Orbex to achieve its first launch next year.

“Orbex is first and foremost a launch services specialist," Mr Chambers........

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