Government’s vision is for the UK to be at the global forefront of small satellite launch and emerging space transportation markets. The UK Spaceflight Programme, LaunchUK, aims to establish commercial vertical and horizontal small satellite launch from UK spaceports, with the first launches taking place from the early 2020s. This will support the Government’s aim of growing the UK’s global market share of the space sector to 10% by 2030. To meet this vision and aim, the UK Government is funding a range of industry-led projects including funding to support a new spaceport in Sutherland, Scotland, and a horizontal launch site at Cornwall Airport Newquay. The potential environmental risks of such spaceports, and their ancillary activities, need to be fully assessed under the Space Industry Act 2018, since it is envisaged that various stages of the launch vehicles will be jettisoned into the marine environment. However, it is unknown whether these will be in UK territorial, other countries exclusive economic zones (EEZ), or international waters. Here we set out the regulatory context of these activities, provide an initial assessment of the potential marine impacts from such launches and the potential jettisoned debris that may be generated and highlight any unaddressed regulatory issues.

政府的愿景是使英国站在小型卫星发射和新兴的太空运输市场的全球前沿。英国太空飞行计划LaunchUK旨在从英国太空港建立商业垂直和水平小型卫星发射，首次发射于2020年代初进行。这将支持政府的目标，即到2030年将英国在太空领域的全球市场份额提高到10％。为实现这一愿景和目标，英国政府正在资助一系列由行业主导的项目，包括用于支持英国新太空港的资金。苏格兰的萨瑟兰（Sutherland），以及纽奎（Newquay）康沃尔机场的水平发射场。需要根据《 2018年太空工业法》对此类太空港及其辅助活动的潜在环境风险进行全面评估，因为设想将运载火箭的各个阶段抛弃到海洋环境中。但是，这些区域是在英国领土，其他国家/地区的专属经济区（EEZ）还是国际水域中还是未知的。在这里，我们列出了这些活动的监管背景，对此类发射的潜在海洋影响以及可能产生的可能被抛弃的碎片进行了初步评估，并突出了任何未解决的监管问题。