The UK has granted permission to send the first rocket into space from the Shetland Islands to a German startup that plans to launch a craft as early as this year.
Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Thursday it had awarded the vertical launch licence to Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) to take off from SaxaVord spaceport in the archipelago 50 miles (80km) north of Scotland’s mainland.
If successful, RFA would join the private-sector space race as the first company in Europe to carry out a vertical launch into orbit. The licence allows the launch of its 30-metre tall RFA One rocket northwards from the island of Unst, away from populated areas.
Space launch was long the preserve of governments, but in the last two decades it has been revolutionised by private companies – most notably Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Musk, now the world’s richest man because of his holdings in SpaceX and the electric car company Tesla, built the company into the dominant player in the space industry by making reusable rockets that pushed costs down dramatically. SpaceX launched two privately built lunar landers on Wednesday.
However, SpaceX’s dominance will soon be tested by others. Blue Origin, the space company owned by the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, on Thursday launched its New Glenn rocket into orbit at its first attempt. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can launch nearly 23 tonnes into low-Earth orbit, while New Glenn will aim to carry 45 tonnes.
In contrast, the RFA One will carry 1.3 tonnes. It hopes to find a niche for its “microlauncher” as demand for space services booms. However, it will have to overcome the technical problems that led to an explosion at the Shetland spaceport during tests in August.
More rivals for commercial launch abilities would be welcomed by several governments, amid concerns over the reliance on SpaceX, given Musk’s increasingly outspoken support for the far right.
European countries already have space launch abilities, but the site used is in French Guiana, a region of France north of Brazil on South America’s coast. The SaxaVord site would add launch abilities from Europe proper.
A successful launch would also represent a victory for the UK, after the collapse of Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit following the failure of a rocket launch from a rival spaceport in Cornwall. The rocket was lost, which meant it failed to become the first to be launched into space from British soil.
RFA has already carried out trials at the SaxaVord spaceport in preparation for its launch plans, but in August last year a nine-engine test went wrong and the rocket exploded.
Rob Bishton, the CAA’s chief executive, said: “This is a new era for aerospace and granting the first vertical launch licence from UK soil builds towards a historic milestone for the nation.
“This licence is the culmination of extensive hard work behind the scenes to put appropriate safety and environmental measures in place before launch.”
Jörn Spurmann, RFA’s co-founder, said he hopes the launches will be “a turning point for European space innovation”.
“This licence marks Europe’s bold step toward independent, competitive and sustainable space access,” Spurmann said. “By enabling cost-effective and flexible launches from European mainland, we are laying the foundation for a new era of space exploration and commercialisation, ensuring Europe remains at the forefront of the global space race.”
Mike Kane, the UK’s aviation minister, said the licence “moves the dial one step closer towards the first commercial vertical space launch in the United Kingdom”.
