South Ayrshire Council has started the process of submitting a formal planning application for the Prestwick Spaceport development.

The Proposal of Application Notice (POAN) is the first step in the planning process for Prestwick Spaceport and signals the intent to apply for planning permission in early 2022.

In September last year, the airport signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK-based horizontal ‘air launch’ company Astraius.

The agreement will see Astraius deploy its horizontal launch technology as part of Prestwick’s spaceport development. This will allow the spaceport to launch rockets carrying small satellites from high altitude.

The submission of the POAN follows the Environmental Impact Assessment Screening Report last year which confirms that Prestwick’s space ambitions will not result in any significant adverse effects to the environment.

Launches from Prestwick will take place using a method known as horizontal or air launch, in which an aircraft will carry a rocket containing small satellites a long distance to high altitude above the ocean.

Once safely beyond inhabited areas and above the densest layer of the atmosphere, the rocket leaves the aircraft, ignites its engines, and carries its payload to orbit. Launch operations at Prestwick will therefore consist mainly of processing rockets and their payloads, loading them on to a launch aircraft, and then conventional aircraft take-offs from the existing airport runways.

Speaking about the filed application, Councillor Peter Henderson, Leader of South Ayrshire Council, commented: “Prestwick Spaceport has achieved another milestone by filing a POAN for its development. The POAN starts the process for Prestwick Spaceport submitting its formal planning application later this year.

“This follows on from Prestwick Spaceport securing a launch provider, Astraius, in September last year,” continued Councillor Peter Henderson. “By securing a launch partner and beginning the planning process, South Ayrshire is on its way to establishing Prestwick Spaceport and ensuring an exciting future for our local communities and making South Ayrshire part of the global space economy.”

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To provide horizontal launch capability, which until now has never been accessible anywhere in Europe, Prestwick Spaceport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Astraius, the leading UK-based commercial horizontal launch company.

Astraius will launch rockets from standard transport aircraft that require no modification and will be able to place small satellites, such as shoebox sized CubeSats, into a variety of orbits.

These small satellites can be used for a host of applications, such as monitoring climate change or tracking food supply chains to ensure that products in supermarkets are sustainably sourced. The city of Glasgow already designs and manufactures more CubeSats than any city outside of the USA.

Prestwick aims to conduct its first rocket launch by the end of 2023, a goal supported by the Ayrshire Growth Deal, a multi-million-pound funding package that was signed last year. £80 million of the Growth Deal is dedicated to securing Ayrshire’s future as a leading region in the UK’s aerospace and space engineering industries.