Spaceport 1

In 2018, the North Uist site lost out to the Sutherland spaceport for £2.5m in UK Government funding to develop the first vertical launch site. In 2019 (the local council) agreed to invest £1m to purchase land at Scolpaig for the construction of a launch facility, in a consortium with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the UK technology company QinetiQ and the consultancy Commercial Space Technologies (CST). Rockets would be launched vertically to carry payloads of up to 500kg into Sun synchronous and polar orbits. The project was initially promised to create 50 to 70 jobs. The approved the project in June 2023, despite 244 responses opposing the development including a petition with nearly…

In November 2024, local contractor Macaulay Askernish started construction work on the enabling infrastructure of upgraded access tracks and new parking areas, plus installing fibre broadband to the site. The total cost of the enabling works was estimated at £2.6m, with £947k from Highlands and Islands Enterprise and £675k from the 's capital works programme.