Portugal's rocket island

 

The Atlantic-facing nation of Portugal is making waves in the final frontier — and it’s doing so from one of its most remote and stunning outposts.

High above the Atlantic Ocean, on a windswept corner of Santa Maria Island in the Azores, Europe’s newest space ambitions are taking flight.

With the successful launch of a small research rocket in September 2024, the archipelago is no longer just a jewel of eco-tourism and biodiversity — it’s officially on the map as a contender for Europe’s next spaceport.

“This is about more than just launching rockets,” says Bruno Carvalho, director of the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium (ASC). “It’s about proving that Portugal is ready to play a serious role in the future of space access in Europe.”

The project’s symbolic lift-off came with the launch of a suborbital research rocket called GAMA, designed and built in Portugal. While small — the rocket stood just 5.2 metres tall — the mission marked a major milestone.

GAMA reached a modest altitude of around 3.5 km and parachuted safely back to Earth, providing invaluable test data for future, more ambitious flights.

“It was crucial for us to demonstrate that the operational competency to launch and recover rockets exists in Portugal,” told me during an international space conference in Italy.

“This was not just about building a rocket. It was about the whole operational framework — telemetry, tracking and recovery. The next step is to scale this capability up.”

The launch also marked another milestone: the first suborbital rocket to be launched from Portuguese soil. Or rather, Portuguese lava — the Azores being a volcanic archipelago formed millions of years ago in the heart of the Atlantic.

Santa Maria, the easternmost island in the Azores, is geographically and strategically well placed to support a range of satellite launch trajectories.

Unlike mainland Europe, it offers wide access to the ocean and minimal air traffic — crucial factors for modern launch safety zones.

“This fills a huge gap in Europe’s launch capabilities,” said Hugo Costa, a board member of Portugal Space, the country’s national space agency.

“Right now, there’s no other open-access commercial spaceport in Europe. We want to give Europe — and the world — more options.”

Indeed, Europe has been heavily reliant on the Guiana Space Centre in South America for launching satellites into orbit.

But with global demand for small satellite launches booming and increasing pressure to develop independent European capabilities, the timing couldn’t be better.

The near-term goal is to support more suborbital launches like GAMA, refining procedures and building operational expertise.

Longer-term the vision is bolder: a fully functioning commercial spaceport that can support orbital launches — rockets delivering payloads into Earth orbit and potentially beyond.

“There are already multiple companies interested in launching from here,” Carvalho noted. “What we’re building is a flexible, open-access spaceport that’s lighter, faster and more cost-effective than traditional launch centres.”

Importantly, the Santa Maria site has already passed several key technical and environmental evaluations, and Portugal’s supportive regulatory framework is helping smooth the way for commercial partnerships.

The development isn’t just about rockets — it’s about creating a space economy. Santa Maria’s spaceport is expected to bring jobs, attract international investment, and strengthen Portugal’s scientific and technological profile.

Portugal Space, established in 2019, is spearheading the effort as part of its ‘Portugal Space 2030’ strategy, which focuses on developing a home-grown space industry and leveraging satellite technology to support environmental monitoring, telecommunications and navigation.

Local businesses are also likely to benefit — not only from construction and logistics contracts, but potentially from high-tech spin-offs and an influx of aerospace professionals and tourists.

Portugal’s Atlantic location — both physically and politically — gives it a unique position. While committed to the European Space Agency (ESA), Portugal can carve out its own role, open to both European and international commercial partners.

The Atlantic Spaceport Consortium believes that this open-access model is the future of space — lighter regulation, lower costs and flexible, responsive services for a growing range of missions, from Earth observation satellites to research payloads.

“If Europe wants to remain competitive, we need more spaceports,” Costa argues. “The Azores can provide something different — and very valuable.”

While the world’s attention may be focused on the likes of Elon Musk and SpaceX, a quieter space revolution is happening here in Portugal.

With its blend of vision, location and determination, Santa Maria might soon be the starting point for Europe’s next generation of space missions — helping Portugal become not just a participant in the space race, but a leader too.

As Carvalho put it, “This is a place where history and future meet — where ancient volcanoes are now pointing the way to the stars.”

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 Caption: The Malbusca launch site on the south coast of Santa Maria, Azores.
Photo: Pedro Roque/Atlantic Spaceport Consortium

Clive Simpson has worked as a journalist covering the global space industry for three decades and is Editor-in-Chief of ROOM Space Journal. He’s been a regular visitor to Portugal's Algarve for many years and his first novel, about life in post-climate change world, is being published soon. This article is an edited version of Azores rising – Portugal’s Atlantic outpost vying to become space gateway

Lift-off for Scotland

The wild and unspoilt north of Scotland - I see no rockets!

SCOTLAND'S A’Mhoine peninsular is one of the most beautiful and remote spots left in the UK. It’s in Sutherland at the very top of mainland Scotland and you’ll be forgiven if you’ve never heard of it.

I visited the area one Easter. It was some long drive from ‘civilisation’ along deserted and desolate minor roads skirted by the most breath-taking mountain and coastal scenery imaginable.

More than 100 miles north of Inverness, we pitched a couple of tents for the night on a pristine, white-sanded beach at Scourie. It was just us, the waves and the wildlife - and a crystal clear dark sky.

The next day we continued another 20 miles or so north to Durness, a small civil parish in the north-west the Scottish Highlands. This isn't the most north westerly point in mainland Scotland but it is certainly the most north westerly village.

It marks the point at which the main coast road from Scourie turns right and heads south east to Thurso via Tongue and through the A'Mhoine peninsular.

Durness is one of the few remaining places of any size in mainland Scotland that you can only access by single track road. The white lines cease some 14 miles south on the A838, and the road east along the north coast of Scotland to Tongue and Thurso has many single track stretches.

The multi-billion pound aerospace industry's high-tech Farnborough International Airshow might then seem a ‘million miles’ away but this is where business secretary Greg Clark officially announced on Monday (16 July) that Scotland is to host a new UK launch base on the A’Mhoine peninsular .

The UK government is making £2.5 million available to Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish government's economic and community development agency to “develop a vertical launch site in Sutherland”.

And according to Clarke’s statement it “could see lift-off from the early 2020s and create hundreds of jobs. It will use innovative rocket technology to pave the way for a world-leading spaceflight market in Britain”.

Really, one might ask? Of course, the UK’s tabloid press websites couldn’t wait for the embargoed countdown to pass (10.30 pm on 15 July) and were fast off the mark with flights of fancy.

“The spaceport will host launches of satellites and rockets into outer space before eventually including commercial flights which will venture outside our atmosphere,” wrote Mark Hodge in The Sun.               

SNP (Scottish National Party) MP Philippa Whitford seemed to have a better grasp of things when quoted in The Mirror. She said, “launches are currently carried out from Kazakhstan,” giving the distinct impression to the unitiated that Brits might be lining up to compete directly with the Russian launch site.

“Easy launch access from Scotland would benefit the commercial satellite industry right across the UK,”  added Whitford.

Well indeed it might but let’s be honest the A'Mhoine peninsular is not going to be anything like the launch facilities in Kazakhstan, or French Guiana (Europe’s rocket launch site), or NASA’s Florida for that matter.

An artist's impression of the proposed launch site.

Like much of recent government policy, the spaceport announcement is definutely a high-profile attention-grabber designed to make the country feel that in a post-Brexit world it will recapture something of the pioneering spirit.

However welcome the idea, it’s short on detail, content and, above all, finance. I’m guessing that the £250 million would be barely enough to get planning permission through - and the rest will have to come from private funding.

One pathway to a British launch site might lie with the likes of Skyrora, a startup launcher business with serious private funding and it’s headquarters in Scotland.

"As a launch company based in Edinburgh it's very exciting for us that, finally, the UK's first vertical spaceport has been given the green light to be built in Scotland,” business development director Daniel Smith told me.

A consortium led by American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin might also become one of the partners. It could bring a version of the Electron rocket to Scotland which it currently is starting to fly out of New Zealand.

Greg Clarke’s ambitious statement that we “could see lift-off from the early 2020s and create hundreds of jobs” may seem overly simplistic given the hoops hat still have to be jumped through.

But perhaps we should keep things in perspective? Despite the tabloid hype we’re not, at least for the time being, talking about blasting people into space - merely a new breed of satellite known as CubeSats, which are roughly the size as a loaf of bread and can be hurled into orbit on top of a giant firework.

The countdown clock is already ticking on a lucrative commercial market for launching the new generation of mini satellites and time is short for the UK if it wants to capture a significant share of the nascent small launch market.

Regional authorities, rocket operators and the government are going to have to move fast if they want to avoid the opportunities being snapped up other countries. Come on Scotland, you can do it!

See my news item too - Rockets for Scotland

Logo goes up in smoke

 

I always enjoy a good rocket launch and last night's Ariane 5 from French Guiana carrying Europe's latest weather satellite for EUMETSAT was no exception.

It was especially good to see the giant MSG-4 logo on the side of the Ariane rocket because the logo was designed for EUMETSAT by myself and Andrew Hunt back in 2002.

At the time I ran the award-winning media agency SimComm Europe, which was based in Havant near Portsmouth, and Andy freelanced for us.

I worked extensively for both EUMETSAT, based in Darmstadt, Germany, and for the media and public outreach departments of ESA's Paris headquarters and Netherlands technology base, writing and producing annual reports, newsletters, website copy, press releases and brochures.

For our humble MSG logo this last night’s launch was its fourth and final flight into space on the side of an Ariane 5 rocket. This was the press release we issued back on 22 August 2002: 

Giant logo emblazoned on European rocket

The design work of a Havant company will quite literally be going into orbit shortly before midnight tonight.

A giant logo created by SimComm Europe is on the side of Europe's Ariane 5 rocket which is due to blast a new European weather satellite into space.

The launch of the first Meteosat Second Generation satellite for Europe's German-based Eumetsat weather organisation is scheduled for 2330 BST from French Guiana in South America.

SimComm, based in Brockhampton Lane, has been working with Eumetsat for a number of years and designed the logo for use in various kinds of publicity material connected with the launch.

"The logo has been used in many documents and on stickers, pens and notebooks," said SimComm managing director Clive Simpson.

"However, we're delighted to see  our work on the side of a rocket - it's quite a coup for a PR and design agency, and not every day you get such prestigious exposure."

Meteosat Second Generation will replace the current series of weather satellites which provide the pictures and information for our daily weather forecasts.

In 2003 SimComm also wrote, produced and handled the worldwide distribution of Eumetsat’s MSG information book and user guide.

The 80-page full colour document, in both English and French versions, promoted the value of the Meteosat Second Generation programme.

SimComm writer Lucy Owens (now Mrs Lucy Kemp), who also acted as deputy editor for myself on Spaceflight magazine, went on a press trip to French Guiana for the first MSG launch.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case with launches, her trek to South America proved in vain as far as witnessing a spectacular launch was concerned after a technical fault delayed it beyond the scheduled length of the press trip.

Article by Clive Simpson

Countdown to launch

Launch of the first flight test of Orion, NASA’s next-generation spacecraft that will send astronauts to an asteroid and onward to Mars, is now less than an hour away.

The Orion will launch, uncrewed, on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Heavy rocket at 0705 local time (1205 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida.

The window for launch is two hours and 39 minutes, and weather at both the launch and splashdown sites is currently showing ‘green’.

During its 4.5 hour trip, Orion will orbit Earth twice and travel to an altitude of 3,600 miles into space.

The flight is designed to test many of the elements that pose the greatest risk to astronauts and will provide critical data needed to improve Orion’s design and reduce risks to future mission crews.

United Launch Alliance operates the Delta IV-Heavy, the largest rocket in the American launch inventory.

The first stage includes three core stages, each one 134-feet-tall and 16.7 feet in diameter. An RS-68 engine is at the base of each core stage to give the rocket a combined thrust of about two million pounds.

The stage holds super-cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants. The second stage of the Delta IV Heavy is powered by a single RL10B-2 engine that also uses a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Orion spacecraft is bolted to the top of the second stage.

The Spaceflight Meteorology Group at Johnson Space Center is saying the weather looks good off the coast of Baja, California, where Orion will descend and splashdown to end the flight test. Navy ships are waiting in the area to recover the Orion spacecraft.

Live coverage of the launch from Nasa can be viewed by clicking here

Ready for blast off

Sunrise at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and a new era is about to begin. Today is probably Nasa’s biggest day since the final Space Shuttle launch in July 2011.

There are no people on today’s test flight of Orion, the capsule that is planned to take humans once again beyond the confines of Earth into deep space. Whether such a small capsule will ever make it as far as Mars is another question.

Launch weather officer Kathy Winters says conditions “are promising” with a 70 per cent prospect of favourable weather for the opening of the early morning (1205 GMT) launch window.

Heading into the final hours of countdown the mood in Houston mission control is upbeat. “On the vehicle side everything is extremely clean. We're ready to go,” says Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion programme manager.

Flight director Mike Serafin hasn’t experienced this kind of feeling around Nasa since the end of the Space Shuttle programme. “We are launching an American spacecraft from American soil and beginning something new,” he says.

“It’s a new mission and there are some things I'm sure we're going to learn from this unmanned flight test that will enable us to fly humans into deep space.”

With the launch of Orion, Nasa is about to claw back some of the ground it lost after the premature cancellation of the Space Shuttle programme by President Bush when there was nothing on hand to replace it.

The short, unmanned flight of Orion - a conical vessel reminiscent of the Apollo command modules that carried men to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s - will test key technologies.

Orion is being developed by Lockheed Martin alongside a powerful new rocket that will have its own debut in three or four years’ time. Together, they will form the core capabilities needed to send humans beyond the International Space Station (ISS).

Today’s flight will be on a stand-in Delta IV-Heavy rocket - currently the largest launcher in the world and so the blast off will be spectacular.

Shortly after midnight local time the 330-foot tall mobile service tower was retracted from Cape Canaveral's pad 37B and the wheeled gantry structure moved along rail tracks to its launch position about the length of a football field away from the rocket.

Crews then worked on securing the complex for launch before leaving the danger area around the pad.

All workers had to be clear prior to the start of hazardous operations in the countdown - which include fuelling the Delta IV's Common Booster Cores and the second stage with supercooled liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants - which began shortly before 3 am.