Spaceport founder dies before realising dream of rocket launch

Telegraph

13-08-2025

The founder of Britain's first vertical spaceport has died without ever seeing rockets launch from the UK.
Frank Strang, 67, who pioneered SaxaVord spaceport in Shetland with his wife Debbie, 60, died after a short battle with cancer.
Mr Strang was the driving force behind the spaceport, but told The Telegraph in 2023 that the fight to be taken seriously had taken a huge toll on the lives of SaxaVord employees.
'As a company, we've had divorce, deaths, the bailiffs coming round, and almost bankruptcy,' he said.
'We've had to remortgage both the houses. It's almost killed me, my ashes are probably going to go up with the first launch.'
Mr Strang, a former Royal Air Force physical education teacher, met his wife Debbie when they served at RAF Lossiemouth in the 1990s.
After leaving the air force, the couple took over several decommissioned Ministry of Defence sites for regeneration, and in 2004 acquired RAF SaxaVord on Unst.
The 20-acre site had been an air force base in the Second World War, and more recently a listening post during the Cold War.
The couple initially housed gas workers at the site, but in 2017, the UK Space Agency launched a competition looking for a spaceport to partner with Lockheed Martin and ABL to develop satellite launch capability from Britain.
A feasibility study suggested SaxaVord was the best spot, but the contract was awarded to Sutherland spaceport, leaving The Strang's forced to go it alone with a core team of friends and space enthusiasts.
Without the Government's backing, the team struggled to find investors who believed they were serious. Employees had to work on half salaries, or for free, and it was only when progress at Sutherland and other European spaceports began to falter, that rocket companies started knocking at SaxaVord's door.
The spaceport was granted the first vertical launch licence from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 2023 and its range licence the following year.
Two rocket companies also now have licences to launch from the site with the first lift-off expected within the next six months, delivering small satellites and space experiments into orbit.
'We had a background in making things happen'
Mr Strang told The Telegraph that the first launch would be 'two fingers up to the people who tried to put us out of business'.
'When we started, we didn't have a clue what we were getting into,' he said. 'None of us had a background in space. We just had a background in making things happen. It's Local Hero meets Rocky.'
Mr Strang was forced to step back from the business in July after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. But he vowed not to 'throw in the towel' and said he still hoped to live long enough to see the first launch.
SaxaVord said Mr Strang's death was 'devastating' but said it made the company more determined to deliver a successful launch.
Scott Hammond, an ex-fighter pilot and deputy chief executive of SaxaVord, who is expected to take over, was one of the original founders alongside Mr Strang and his wife.
He said: 'I have been a friend and colleague of Frank since our days together in the RAF, so his death so young is an enormous blow both personally and professionally.
'When we first identified the prospects for a spaceport at Lamba Ness in Unst, Frank would not take no for an answer and broke through barriers that would have deterred lesser people.
'He was a real force of nature, and his vision and his grit got us to where we are today, bringing the Unst and Shetland communities, investors and government with us.
'But our mission is not complete – my job now is to deliver not only the first launch but successive launches that establish the UK as Europe's leader in access to space.
'Both myself and the SaxaVord team feel a strong sense of responsibility to deliver that goal for Frank, and we will, I am in no doubt.'