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 that 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.
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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.
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By 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.
