{"id":1129797,"date":"2026-08-04T12:15:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1129797\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:15:22","slug":"more-than-30-accommodation-units-now-proposed-for-space-centre-launch-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1129797\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 30 accommodation units now proposed for space centre launch staff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>A TOTAL of 32 temporary accommodation units are now being proposed in Unst for SaxaVord Spaceport launch staff.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>This is spread between 23 modular units at the old pitch at Saxa Vord, and nine on land at the nearby Taftens.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2022\/10\/24\/temporary-80-bed-accommodation-block-for-space-port-staff-given-planning-go-ahead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">A temporary two-storey structure containing about 80 units had previously received planning permission, but this has not come to fruition<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the two new applications involving fewer units \u2013 covering a timespan of five years \u2013 have now been submitted to Shetland Islands Council planners.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the cabins proposed have a floor area of 29 square metres.<\/p>\n<p>They feature a sleeping room as well as a kitchenette and a bathroom.<\/p>\n<p>Planning documents say that the external cladding is proposed to be from \u201cNeolith Nero Zimbabwe tiles by Dekton, made from Neolith\u2019s sintered stone, which is a highly engineered, ultracompact surface produced from 100% natural raw materials\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>They added that the development has been \u201ccarefully designed in response to its site, context and operational requirements\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It is in the vicinity of the former RAF Saxa Vord camp, which the late space centre chief Frank Strang bought from the Ministry of Defence in the early 2000s before turning it into a visitor resort.<\/p>\n<p>The first launch from SaxaVord Spaceport was expected to take place this summer, but plans are now uncertain.<\/p>\n<p>This is because launch operator Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) had to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/07\/28\/rocket-factory-augsburg-investigate-issue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u201cdestack\u201d its flight vehicle at the spaceport to investigate an issue it had encountered<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The German company had been planning to undertake a hot fire test prior to the vertical launch.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shetland News<\/strong> is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Removal of third-party ads;<\/li>\n<li>Bookmark posts to read later;<\/li>\n<li>Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;<\/li>\n<li>Hide membership messages;<\/li>\n<li>Comments open for discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of <strong>Shetland News<\/strong> by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2026\/08\/04\/accommodation-units-now-proposed-space\/\" title=\"Sign in\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Sign in<\/strong><\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A TOTAL of 32 temporary accommodation units are now being proposed in Unst for SaxaVord Spaceport launch staff.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1129798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3844],"tags":[12717,9095,70,413,30734,16,15,307482],"class_list":["post-1129797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-planning","tag-saxavord","tag-science","tag-space","tag-spaceport","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unst"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117037193074381005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1129798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}