The serial entrepreneur Frank Strang, who has died aged 67 of oesophageal cancer, seized an unpremeditated opportunity to deliver the first licensed spaceport for vertical launches in western Europe, overcoming multiple barriers along the way.
Having acquired a disused RAF radar station at the most northerly point in the Shetland Islands a decade earlier – without any thought of spaceports – by 2017 Strang had realised the potential of his asset as the government sought to promote a UK launch capacity.
Long-haired and cowboy-booted, Strang weaved his way through the corridors of power to persuade government, regulators and private investors that the answer lay in the former Saxa Vord base on the island of Unst. Step by step, he and his small team overcame safety, planning and political challenges while walking a financial tightrope to keep the vision alive.
One of the more unlikely delays came from Historic Environment Scotland on grounds that the launch site would mean demolition of a former radar station that had been designated “a monument of national significance”. The quango eventually withdrew its objection, recognising the spaceport’s national importance.
SaxaVord Spaceport was licensed in 2023 by the Civil Aviation Authority and the first launch is due within the coming months, with international clients from both civil and military sectors signed up.
A serial entrepreneur, Strang was also a former RAF officer and coach to the Scottish freestyle ski team. Photograph: SaxaVord
It is poignant that Strang will not be around to witness the climax to his endeavours; his cancer diagnosis came just two months before his death.
The Saxa Vord RAF base had closed in 2006 and was bought shortly afterwards by Frank and his then wife, Debbie. The site included 23 houses and became an eco-tourism centre with accommodation, restaurant and bar. They diversified into a facilities company, providing up to 2,000 oil workers at the Sullom Voe terminal on the Shetland mainland with accommodation and catering, and founded the UK’s most northerly gin distillery, on Unst, in 2014.
The lightbulb moment came when the UK government commissioned the Sceptre report to advise on potential for establishing a vertical launch site in the north of Scotland. It concluded that “the Shetland Isles has the best orbital access, but the remote site means it is logistically the most challenging”.
The Strangs, along with a former RAF fighter pilot, Scott Hammond, in 2017 founded Shetland Space Centre (of which I later became a director); it was renamed SaxaVord Spaceport in 2021. The challenges, as well as the remote location, also included the fact that the Scottish government put its weight and money behind a virgin site on the Sutherland mainland, close to land owned by Anders Holch Povlsen, a Danish businessman who has extensive interests in the north of Scotland.
Povlsen’s well-founded environmental objections to the Sutherland option developed into wholehearted enthusiasm for SaxaVord and, as the need for investment grew to fund its construction, his sustained support and faith in Strang’s ability to deliver kept the show on the road.
“Against the odds,” said Povlsen, “and with many headwinds, even a few unfair ones, he built the solid foundations of what will likely become Europe’s largest commercial spaceport. No matter what happens, many people, including me, are going to stay right behind Frank, doing our utmost to make sure SaxaVord becomes the success it’s set up for.”
Hammond, who has succeeded Frank as chief executive, said: “We are determined to make the UK Europe’s leader in vertical launch spaceflight. That will be Frank’s legacy for Shetland, for Scotland and the UK.”
Frank was born and spent his early years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where his father, Tom, was a physical education teacher. His mother, Barbara, also a teacher, died when he was 13. The family had its roots in the Highlands, and Frank completed his schooling at Dingwall academy, Ross-shire. He then graduated in PE from Jordanhill College of Education, Glasgow.
After a spell teaching, he was accepted for training at the RAF College Cranwell, and joined the service as a physical education officer latterly based at Lossiemouth, in Moray, where he met Debbie Hope, a fellow RAF officer; they married in 1991. Part of Frank’s role lay in community relations, and in 1994, the year of his departure from the RAF, he was appointed MBE for charitable fundraising. He was also coach to the Scottish freestyle ski team for five years.
He left the service after suffering an injury in a parachuting accident. His first business venture was to promote the US region of New England as a winter sports destination for UK skiers.
This took Frank into a project to redevelop a former military airport near Boston, which opened his eyes to similar possibilities in the UK, as the Ministry of Defence disposed of property assets. These were pursued with mixed results but his most fateful decision proved to be the purchase of Saxa Vord.
The Shetland Islands council chief executive Maggie Sandison, who was involved from the outset, noted that the project was conceived and constructed with the community in mind: “Frank’s commitment to a spaceport education strategy created opportunities for children and young people to engage with astronauts, attend space camps and participate in national space competitions.”
Frank and Debbie, who is deputy chief executive of Shetland Space Centre, separated two years ago.
Recently, he married Dani Morey. She survives him, along with Tom and Emily, the children of his first marriage.
Frank Strang, entrepreneur, born 3 August 1958; died 13 August 2025