LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s SaxaVord Spaceport moved a step closer to being able to send satellites into orbit after regulators granted it a licence to provide safety services, paving the way for its first launch later this year.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said in a statement on Thursday it had approved a range control licence for the SaxaVord site, which is located in the Shetland Islands off the northern coast of Scotland.
That marks the second of three licencing hurdles which must be cleared before a first rocket launch can take place. The final step would be a launch licence.
SaxaVord, which became the United Kingdom’s first licensed vertical launch spaceport in December, has partnered with Germany-based Rocket Factory Augsburg for the first mission.
“As Western Europe’s only fully licenced vertical launch spaceport, we are now preparing to make more space history with the beginning of orbital launch operations well underway and first launch expected to be in Q3 of this year,” said Frank Strang, CEO of SaxaVord Spaceport.
The space market is forecast to be worth over a trillion-dollars by 2030 as companies around the world plan to deploy thousands of internet-beaming satellites.
Britain’s efforts to gain a foothold in satellite launches were dealt a major blow in January last year when Virgin Orbit’s rocket failed after launching from a modified Boeing 747 aircraft that took off from Newquay, south-west England.
The firm, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a few months later after struggling to secure long-term funding.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman and Sarah Young; editing by William James)
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