WESTERN Isles MP Angus Brendan MacNeil, representatives from QinetiQ and the leader and officials from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar welcomed Scotland’s Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy Paul Wheelhouse MSP to Uist to discuss having a spaceport in the Hebrides.
Mr MacNeil said: ‘Uist is the lead site in the UK for a vertical take-off facility to be located, not least because of the local expertise which could launch and successfully guide, monitor and control such a rocket.
‘Last year during the maritime exercise Formidable Shield, Hebrides Range in Uist became the only place in the UK to have fired a rocket into space. It was the heaviest, largest and highest rocket launched into space from the British Isles.