Space / First launch from SaxaVord postponed until next year
THE FIRST vertical rocket launch from the SaxaVord Spaceport has been delayed until next year, Shetland News can reveal.
German space company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) had hoped to launch a test flight of their S1 rocket before the end of the year.
But the company’s new chief executive Indulis Kalnins has confirmed that the company’s plans have now slipped into 2026.
Kalnins was giving an update on the timeframe while speaking as part of a panel discussion during the SpaceTechExpo, which was held in the German city of Bremen this week.
A spokesperson for RFA added: “I can now officially confirm that our first test flight will take place in 2026.”
The news is not entirely unexpected after an RFA ‘hot fire’ test at the SaxaVord Spaceport in August last year, saw the company’s rocket equipment go up in flames.
The company said at the time that valuable lessons had be learned, adding that they wanted to be back at the Unst spaceport as soon as possible.
These setbacks are regarded as valuable and inevitable part of the journey to launch rockets into space.
A launch window of November or December 2025 had initially been identified, but this has now slipped into next year.
The news comes after a warning from a parliamentary committee that without secure and long-term investment from government, Scotland, and the UK, was in danger of falling behind in the race to be launch ready for the budding space industry.
An Isar Aerospace Spectrum rocket launched successfully from the Andøya space centre in Norway at the end of March, but crashed 20 seconds after taking off.
SaxaVord is the first fully licensed spaceport in the UK for small rockets delivering payloads into the low earth orbit.
The spaceport, which is almost entirely privately financed, has launch agreements with several companies – including Orbex, Skyrora and HyImpulse – to launch rockets from the Lamba Ness site.
The spaceport’s chief executive Scott Hammond said: “There is tremendous excitement building for our partner RFA’s first test flight, and everyone here at Saxa has been working extremely hard to support their team, both on-site and in Augsburg, with their preparations.
“RFA are pioneering vertical rocket launches in Europe, and quite rightly it takes time to get everything in place.
“As their chosen spaceport, we are ready to help take them on the next step in their successful evolution as a launch service provider, with the ultimate goal of taking satellites that we all rely on in our daily lives into orbit.”
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