UK set for Europe’s first rocket launches to space

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/16/uk-to-be-site-for-europe-first-rocket-launch-to-space/

Posted by TheTelegraph

6 comments

  1. ***The Telegraph reports:***

    Britain is set to be the site of Europe’s first rocket launch after the UK regulator granted the first licence of its kind for a vertical take-off.

    Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), a German rocket manufacturer, has become the first company to be given a “spaceflight operator licence”, also known as a launch licence, by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

    The licence paves the way for the company to complete a test flight of its 30-metre tall RFA ONE rocket from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands. The company hopes to launch for the first time this year.

    SaxaVord is a repurposed RAF base and was the first spaceport in the UK to be granted a licence for vertical rocket launches in 2023.

    But RFA has beaten competitors to be the first to be granted the launch licence needed to permit vertical take-off.

    The company was founded in 2018 and hopes to become a low-cost option for companies wishing to send payloads of up to 1,300kg into low Earth orbit, such as satellites.

    The company hopes to send payloads to space weekly but its current licence, granted on Thursday, constrains it to 10 launches a year, with no more than two a month and 24 hours minimum between take-offs.

    Jörn Spurmann, the co-founder and chief commercial officer of RFA, said: “This is a groundbreaking moment for RFA and for Europe’s space industry.

    “Securing the first-ever launch licence outside ESA’s established site in Kourou is not just a regulatory milestone – it’s a powerful endorsement of our technical excellence and a turning point for European space innovation.

    “This licence marks Europe’s bold step toward independent, competitive, and sustainable space access.

    “By enabling cost-effective and flexible launches from the 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.

    “Together with the CAA and our partners, we are driving the future of accessible and reliable spaceflight, unlocking opportunities that will shape industries and inspire generations.”

    **Full story:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/16/uk-to-be-site-for-europe-first-rocket-launch-to-space/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/16/uk-to-be-site-for-europe-first-rocket-launch-to-space/)

  2. My inner nerd is very happy by this.

    It’s not quite the Dan Dare comics I came across in. Second hand shop (I’m not old enough to have read them new!) but always secretly fancied being part of the British Space Force.

    I will freely admit not knowing a vast amount about the commercial viability of polar launches but hope this is a step in the right direction for the only country to have willingly given up orbital launch capability (for budgetary reasons – please see blue streak for further reference)

  3. I also love this news….dont you need good weather to launch a rocket though? I guess we do have plenty of clear days in some months 🤞🏻

  4. I admire the intrepid men and women, the pinnacle of human ingenuity and perseverance, who brave this desolate, bleak inhospitable void… 

    then get on a rocket to space.

  6. Europe i.e. the ESA has launched many, many, many rockets from their launch base in French Guyana.

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