The SaxaVord spaceport, located in the Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland, has officially become Western Europe’s first licensed spaceport with vertical rocket launch capability.
SaxaVord, located on the island of Unst in the northernmost part of the Shetland archipelago, received its license from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Sunday 17 December. Although the launch date has not been announced yet, CAA said: In a statement He said the license “paves the way for rocket launches on UK soil from 2024”.
SaxaVord, one of two rival launch sites based in Scotland, has partnerships with many companies doing small developments. satellite Launchers including UK-based Skyrora, Germany-based HyImpulse and Augsburg Rocket Company, and US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
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Skyrora, a suborbital Skylark L rocket failed during first test flight The new announcement was welcomed in Iceland in December 2022. In an emailed statement, the company said it had previously applied for a CAA license to operate its vehicles in the UK and was awaiting the outcome.
“For a launch to be carried out fully in compliance with regulations, two further licenses must be issued to separate entities: the Range Operator License and the Launch License,” Alan Thompson, Skyrora’s head of government affairs, said in a statement. said. “Skyrora has a live Launch License application under consideration and we look forward to being granted permission in early 2024 to conduct a launch on SaxaVord in the summer.”
Rocket Company expects to realize its first in Augsburg orbital flight from SaxaVord next year, according to previous reports Space News. Recently, its compatriot company HyImpulse Received £3.4 million from UK Space Agency It plans to fund testing of its hybrid booster rocket at the Shetland field and plans to launch a suborbital test rocket from Australia in early 2024.
SaxaVord is one of three launch sites in the UK vying to become Europe’s leading spaceport. Sutherland Spaceport, located on the north coast of Scotland, about 260 miles (420 kilometers) southwest of SaxaVord, is still awaiting licensing. But this site, located on the picturesque A’ Mhòine peninsula, appears to have gained less traction with rocket companies; It has signed only one major partnership – with UK-based Orbex, which is developing the biofuel-powered Prime launcher at nearby Forres.
There is another licensed spaceport in the UK (Newquay in Cornwall), which hosted the failed launch attempt. Virgin Orbit last year. Although the company has been transformed Boeing’s The 747 successfully took off from Newquay’s runway in January 2023 with its Launcher One microrocket on board, which failed shortly after being released from the carrier aircraft.
There are no current plans to fly rockets from Cornwall as Virgin Orbit has since filed for bankruptcy, which can only support horizontal launches, meaning rockets are launched from the aircraft after being carried to high altitudes under the wing.
That’s why SaxaVord can deliver the long-awaited remake of the UK’s first rocket flight. Despite the glitch in Virgin Orbit, the UK government has not cooled down on rocket flights and recently published a report. lessons learned report Virgin Orbit details the main problems that led to its failure.
In a webinar accompanying the report’s publication, Colin MacLeod, CAA’s head of UK spaceflight regulation, said nine rocket companies had applied for licenses with the authority and were awaiting decisions. Space News.
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The SaxaVord license allows the spaceport to host up to 30 launches per year. The UK, which has a strong small satellite manufacturing industry, hopes that the convenience of having a UK-made satellite launched from a UK port, possibly on a UK-made rocket, could put SaxaVord and its equivalents at an advantage for customers. foreign rivals.
UK Space Agency Launch Director Matt Archer said at CAA: “The award of SaxaVord’s spaceport license by the UK Civil Aviation Authority is an extremely exciting milestone, as we look forward to the first vertical launches from UK soil next year.” expression. “Getting to this stage is testament to the hard work of SaxaVord Spaceport and partners across government, which is moving us towards achieving our ambition to become the UK’s leading provider of small satellite launches in Europe by 2030.”
UK government initially announced construction plans spaceports In the United Kingdom in 2014. Four years later, Sutherland, SaxaVord and Cornwall received funding to help get the rockets off the ground. However, competition in Europe has increased since then. In October 2023, Spanish rocket company PLD Space successfully launched its suborbital Miura 1 rocket from Huelva in southwestern Spain.