View
comments
The first space rocket to blast off from the UK could be launched next year – from the Shetland Islands.
A deal has been struck between Skyrora, an Edinburgh rocket company, and a spaceport belonging to Scotland’s biggest landowner on the islands, Britain’s most northerly spot.
It is hoped the 75ft long, 56-ton, rockets built by Skyrora will deliver satellites into orbit with up to 16 launches a year by 2030 from the SaxaVord Spaceport.
To date, no rocket has ever reached space from the UK.
The launch of the two metre Skylark Nano rocket in June, which reached an altitude of six kilometres, from the mainland of Shetland.
SaxaVord Spaceport received £1.43million of investment from Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen who owns large swathes of rural Scotland.
SaxaVord still needs planning permission for its launch site on the island of Unst.
Skyrora’s founder and chief executive, Volodymyr Levykin, said: ‘We have made no secret of our ambition to be the first company to launch from UK soil so it’s really exciting to agree to this multi-launch deal with SaxaVord.
‘The UK is a world leader in space technology, and this latest move brings us another crucial step closer to offering a significant space service from our own soil.’
The rocket company carried out the first, full, ground, static fire trial in the UK for half a century at the Kildermorie Estate near Alness in the Highlands in May.
It was the first UK-based vertical test of this magnitude since the Black Arrow programme 50 years ago.
Trials of the third stage of the Skyrora XL rocket, which includes its orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) that can refire its engines about 15 times once in orbit, were completed late last year.
The OTV can complete tasks such as acting as a space tug, maintenance, or de-orbiting of defunct satellites, and will be used to address the increasing volume of space debris orbiting Earth.
In May last year, Skyrora completed a full ground static fire trial with the Skylark-L at the
