The planned Virgin Orbit flight from Spaceport Cornwall on December 14th has been cancelled. Virgin is blaming the UK’s licensing for the flight which are not yet received. Virgin Orbit’s CEO Dan Hart, speaking to the BBC, said: “With licences still outstanding for the launch itself and for the satellites within the payload, additional technical […]
The Spaceport Cornwall facility has received its licence to operate from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It means a planned launch by Virgin Orbit’s Launcher One rocket plane can now go ahead. The CAA says the site in Newquay, Cornwall can now be used for sending satellites into space. The first mission is expected […]
Orbex, a Scottish rocket manufacturer and orbital launch services provider, is to build and operate the first vertical launch site for satellites on the UK mainland. It is funding £20 million for construction. Jacobs Solutions, NASA’s largest services contractor, will look after the physical construction. Orbex, based in Forres, Moray, has signed a lease with […]
UK-based Orbex Space has raised £40.4 million in C-round financing. The company says the new cash “led by a new investor, the Scottish National Investment Bank, will allow the company to scale up its resources as it counts down to the first vertical launch from UK soil, as well as unlocking additional funding to support […]
On October 2nd, Virgin Orbit carried out a full ‘wet’ dress rehearsal at its HQ for its upcoming launch of satellites from Spaceport Cornwall. Virgin Orbit says it is ready and standing by for a launch but first needs a formal licence from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The ‘Straight Up’ test involved Virgin’s ‘Cosmic […]
The SaxaVord spaceport in Scotland is seeking to win ‘Freeport’ status helped by a “strategic partnership” with the North-East Scotland Green Freeport bid. The UK is in the process of establishing Freeports around the country and SaxaVord wants to be a ‘subzone’ of the North-East Scotland Green Freeport (NESGF) should it be successful in its […]
Later this year, probably in October, a modified Virgin Orbit aircraft will take off from an updated Cornwall Airport, near Newquay and now named Spaceport Cornwall. The aircraft is expected to carry around 8 smallish satellites into space. The activity will be the first-ever satellite mission handled by a ‘horizontal launcher’ from the UK, according […]
A group of 50 Scottish entrepreneurs under the ‘Space Scotland’ banner will appear at the Farnborough International Airshow (July 18-22) and backed by Highlands & Islands Enterprise together with thirteen companies from Space Scotland who will be sponsoring the trip and crewing the set-up over the five days. Included in the sponsoring firms are all […]
Scottish satellite launch operator SaxaVord, which is developing a satellite launch facility at Unst in the Shetland Isles, has received its final planning approvals. The Scottish Government has confirmed that it will not call-in plans for SaxaVord Spaceport’s Launch and Range Control Centre (LRCC) and for a new section of road to improve access to […]
SaxaVord Spaceport says it will mount a planned site-wide dress rehearsal which will culminate with a small rocket lifting off from their Lamba Ness site in Unst, Shetland, later this year. The rehearsal is being done in preparation for the UK’s first commercial vertical space launch which continues. The trial launch, named Operation Freya, will […]