Update:

This article was prepared before an explosion at SaxaVord Spaceport on 19 August 2024 during the test firing of an RFA One rocket.  An addendum about the accident and its implications for orbital launches from the UK is included at the bottom of the article.

News that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched its first reconnaissance satellite puts the UK's space programme once again into the spotlight, and is an opportune moment to examine plans for launching the first satellite from the UK itself.

An MoD press release announced the satellite launch, which took place from Vandenberg Space Force Base in the USA on 16 August as part of SpaceX's 'Transporter 11' mission to launch no less than 116 satellites for various customers.

The MoD satellite, named Tyche, is the first of a planned constellation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites announced in the MoD's Space Strategy.  Named Tyche, the satellite is UK Space Command’s first satellite which can capture daytime images and videos of the Earth’s surface.  It was designed and built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) through a £22 million contract with MoD, and will operate in low earth orbit for a five year lifespan to provide imagery of the Earth's surface .

Tyche, the first of MoD's new Minerva satellites was launched from the US in August 2024.  Artist impression. Credit SSTL

To date all UK-owned satellites have been launched from outside the country, but the space industry is pinning its hopes on a Scottish spaceport for the first satellite launch from the UK over the coming months.

Going, going, gone: Virgin Orbit's launch attempt

Following the failure of Virgin Orbit's 'Start Me Up' mission from Spaceport Cornwall in 2023, the next launch attempt from the UK will take place from SaxaVord Spaceport, previously known as the Shetland Space Centre.  The launch is expected to take place towards the end of 2024, although uncertainties over technology and the project timetable mean that it may slip into 2025.

The first attempt at launching a satellite from the UK took place in January 2023, when a LauncherOne rocket fired from the aircraft 'Cosmic Girl' experienced an 'anomaly' during the firing of the rocket's second stage, resulting in the loss of the rocket and nine satellites.  Although the UK Space Agency describes the event as the UK's 'first ever orbital launch', which 'made history', neither the rocket nor its payload entered orbit and shortly afterwards Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy and was dissolved.

Following the Virgin Orbit launch attempt, the Space Agency's priority has switched to support the development of vertical launch spaceports in Scotland.  No rocket has yet been launched into orbit from western Europe, and Government ministers and Space Agency executives are keen for the UK to be the first European nation to launch small satellites into orbit from home territory, hoping this will attract space-sector businesses to the UK and put the UK on the map as 'Europe’s leading small satellite launch destination'.  However, the UK is facing competition, as spaceports in Andøya off the coast of Norway and Kiruna in northern Sweden are also planning to host orbital launches in the next year or so.

There is also a darker side to this ambition: one of the government's goals for its space programme is to 'protect and defend our national interests in and through space', and the military use of space is central to government policy in the sector.  Four of the nine satellites on the Virgin Orbit mission had military or security applications, including one developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory and the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.  The Ministry of Defence's space strategy, published in February 2022, announced plans to place a variety of small satellites into orbit, and no doubt UK-based launch providers would be the government's preferred choice for this purpose.

All aboard for SaxaVord

The SaxaVord Spaceport – a private venture in the Shetland Islands – is currently in pole position to host the first UK launch.  SaxaVord Spaceport is located on land which was formerly part of the RAF SaxaVord radar station on the Lamba Ness peninsula on Unst, the farthest north of the Shetland Islands.  The site is close to the most northerly point in the UK, with the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska, and is therefore well placed for launching satellites into polar and sun-synchronous orbits.

Image of work on SaxaVord Spaceport contrasted sharply with artist impression released earlier (see top)

The first attempt at an orbital launch from SaxaVord will be conducted by the German company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), which plans to use its RFA One rocket to launch a number of small satellites into space.  RFA and SaxaVord Spaceport have entered into a launch operations partnership at SaxaVord.  RFA will have exclusive access to one of the three planned launch pads at the spaceport (named launch pad Fredo) for its launches, and the spaceport will provide all the support needed to enable the launches.

RFA conducted a static 'hot fire' engine test at SaxaVord in May 2024, firing up four of the nine motors in the rocket's first stage.  Subsequent tests will fire five and then all nine motors in the first stage.  The second stage of the rocket was scheduled to arrive at SaxaVord  in July, to be followed by the third stage and the satellite payloads.  The launch itself is scheduled to take place in the third quarter of 2024, although no date has yet been announced and slippage is expected.  No information has been published yet about the nature of the satellite payloads.

A number of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) licenses are required before a launch can take place from a spaceport in the UK.  The SaxaVord operation requires a spaceport license; a range license for the site (April 2024); licenses relating to airspace safety around the site, and finally, a launch license.  SaxaVord Spaceport expect to receive the last of the CAA licenses  necessary to host the first orbital launch from the site in September 2024.

The skies to the north of Scotland are a flight path for many transatlantic flights, so flight restrictions and warnings to aviators and mariners will need to be put in place during the launch window.  Concern has been expressed that diverting flights to avoid the launch area would lengthen journeys, resulting in increased carbon emissions and climate pollution.  SaxaVord Spaceport is licensed to undertake up to 30 launches per year, though it will take time to build up to this level of activity.

Other contenders: HyImpulse, Lockheed Martin, and Orbex

Another Germany launch services provider, HyImpulse Technologies, is also planning a series of launches from SaxaVord.  HyImpulse has signed a letter of intent with the spaceport to conduct orbital flights from SaxaVord and has been granted an Air Navigation Order by the CAA permitting a launch during the period 1 December 2023 to 30 November 2024.  Marine Scotland has also issued a license permitting the discarding of debris in the sea north of Unst over the period 1 August to 30 November 2024.  HyImpulse has conducted a series of rocket tests at sites in the Shetlands and is planning two sub-orbital launch of its SR75 sounding rocket from the spaceport.  If all goes as planned, orbital launches will take place from late 2025 onwards, with full commercial operations by 2030.

The UK Space Agency sponsored 'UK Pathfinder' launch is also intended to take place from the SaxaVord Spaceport in due course.  Originally planned to take place at Sutherland Spaceport in 2022, the launch project has been rescheduled a number of times and has run into a variety of technical difficulties.  The project is being led by arms giant Lockheed Martin under a contract awarded in 2018.  Lockheed Martin have partnered with ABL Space Systems, who have designed the RS1 launch rocket intended to deliver the payload into orbit: a free-flying orbital manoeuvring vehicle built by the Moog company that will be used to deploy up to six small cube satellites into low earth orbit.  Lockheed Martin has invested heavily in the project, providing funding to ABL Space Systems to advance the RS1 rocket development and test programme, and building two technology demonstrator satellites which will be deployed through the launch.  However, following the failure and destruction of two RS1 rockets during test launches at the Pacific Spaceport Complex at Kodiak, Alaska in January 2023 and July 2024, the timetable and status for the UK Pathfinder launch are again in question.

Despite the ambitious plans, questions arise as to the financial health of the SaxaVord Spaceport.  The Spaceport has been funded largely through private equity, with the spaceport’s largest individual shareholder reportedly being Danish retail clothing billionaire Anders Hoch Povlsen, who is also the largest individual private landowner in the UK.  Mr Povlsen opposed plans for a spaceport at Sutherland, near his Highland estate, on environmental grounds.

A £139 million debt facility to finance the spaceport and fund longer term development failed to materialise last May, and the company was unable to pay debts of approximately £1 million to local construction contractors.  Funding from Polvson allowed the company to pay the bills and stay afloat, but a wider package of additional funding appears to be needed to secure the future of the spaceport.  An article on the trade website European Space Flight in November 2023 claimed that the company had reached the full extent of its financial reserves and was “flat broke and in need of additional funding”.

Keep Space for Peace Week of Action 5-12 October

In March this year the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced as part of the Budget that the government was providing £10m to SaxaVord Spaceport to help achieve its goal for the UK to become the first European country to launch a satellite into orbit.  Further private investment,  reported to be in the region of £40 million, has allowed SaxaVord to be ready to support its first launch, but money is likely to be in short supply until revenue from subsequent launches starts to come in.

Sutherland Spaceport, on the A’ Mhòine peninsula on the northern coast of mainland Scotland, is also slowly gearing up to undertake launches.  In November 2020 Sutherland Spaceport was the first spaceport in the UK to receive planning permission and since then work has been underway to develop the necessary infrastructure, including installing power and internet connections, making improvements to local roads, and constructing on-site access roads and bridges across watercourses.

The site is owned and will be operated by Orbex, who also own a facility in Forres on the Moray coast, where rocket engines and launch vehicles intended to fly eventually from the spaceport are built.  Orbex will have exclusive use of the Sutherland spaceport and hopes to undertake the first launch of its 'Prime' launch vehicle in 2025 (originally scheduled for late 2021), with plans to eventually undertake up to 12 launches per year from the spaceport.  Prime is a small launch vehicle capable of placing a payload of up to 180 kg into low earth orbit.  The vehicle has yet to launch and its development has suffered extensive delays.

Orbex has received generous support from Highlands And Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government's development agency for the north of Scotland, and rivals HyImpulse claim that Sutherland has received at least £17.1 million in funding from the agency: substantially more than the SaxaVord project.

Addendum -  20 August 2024

On 19 August 2024 RFA announced that an 'anomaly' during a static fire test of the RFA One launcher first stage at SaxaVord Spaceport had resulted in the loss of the stage.  No-one was injured in the accident and RFA reported that “the launch pad has been saved and is secured, the situation is under control, and any immediate danger has been mitigated”.  The company said it would “take our time and assess the situation”.

The launcher first stage was destroyed in an explosion and fire which was caught on film by a BBC film team invited to SaxaVord to publicise the test.  Although RFA has stated it intends to return to regular operations as soon as possible, the first stage that was destroyed was part of the vehicle which RFA had intended to use in its forthcoming launch from SaxaVord.  There will inevitably be an impact on the launch timetable.  Fortunately for RFA – and their insurers – the accident took place during a test, rather than a live launch, and no satellite payload was lost.

The setback should be a reminder to politicians, entrepreneurs, and  development agencies who see the space sector as a fix for the economic issues facing the north of Scotland that the space launch business is a complex, expensive, and high risk business.  Investors will need long pockets and lots of patience and there is no guarantee of success – as Virgin Orbit found out.