(Bloomberg) -- The UK government has awarded £10 million ($12.7 million) to a spaceport in Scotland’s Shetland Islands in an effort to get rockets off the ground this year.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday announced a budget which included funding to support orbital launches at SaxaVord Spaceport, a site which was granted its spaceport license in December.

“This will make a massive difference to what we are trying to do,” Chief Operating Officer Debbie Strang said at Space-Comm Expo in Farnborough. 

The spaceport expects to host its first mission this year. The former RAF site will have a total of three launchpads on site. The first pad is complete while work on the second for Lockheed Martin Corp. and ABL Systems is underway.

Strang, who runs the spaceport with her husband Frank, wants to attract tourists to the site once construction is finished. Rocket launches, ground stations and the accommodation on site are all key in generating money for SaxaVord, she said.

“For a sustainable spaceport, it isn’t just about launch, you need to have a mix of revenue streams,” Strang said.

The government’s funding is subject to due diligence, it said in the budget documents.

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