WASHINGTON — German launch vehicle startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has received a license from British regulators to carry out its first orbital launch from a spaceport in the Shetland Islands later this year.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which licenses launches and spaceports in the United Kingdom, announced Jan. 16 it issued a license to RFA allowing the company to conduct launches of its RFA ONE rocket from SaxaVord Spaceport. This was the first license issued by the CAA for a vertical orbital launch from the U.K., and the first license for a privately developed vertical orbital launch from Europe.
“This is a groundbreaking moment for RFA and for Europe’s space industry,” Jörn Spurmann, co-founder and chief commercial officer of RFA, said in a statement. “This license marks Europe’s bold step toward independent, competitive and sustainable space access. By enabling cost-effective and flexible launches from European mainland, we are laying the foundation for a new era of space exploration and commercialization, ensuring Europe remains at the forefront of the global space race.”
The license, RFA said, is the final regulatory approval needed to launch RFA ONE from SaxaVord. The company said only it is working towards a test flight later this year and did not offer a more specific schedule.
RFA suffered a setback last August when the first stage the company originally intended for the inaugural RFA ONE launch was destroyed in a static-fire test at SaxaVord. At the time, the company was planning a launch before the end of 2024, but said the accident would delay the rocket’s inaugural launch to 2025.
RFA is one of several European launch startups planning first launches in the next year or so. RFA ONE is designed to place up to 1,300 kilograms into a sun-synchronous orbit. The company has won support from the European Space Agency’s “Boost!” program intended to support work on small launch vehicles, and the company is likely to compete in the upcoming European Launcher Challenge intended to bolster competition in the European launch sector, including development of larger launch vehicles.
The license is also a milestone for the CAA. The license to RFA is the first for a vertical orbital launch from the U.K., after previously licensing Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne system that took off and landed on a runway. The CAA has also issued spaceport licenses to SavaVord and Spaceport Cornwall, the airport used by Virgin Orbit.
“This is the last major license type that we have rinsed through the system,” said Colin Macleod, head of U.K. space regulation at CAA, in a call with reporters. “We have now done one of every kind of license.”
The license issued to RFA allows the company to conduct up to 10 launches per year, including no more than two in any month, and the company has to give CAA 60 days’ notice of a launch attempt. There are also restrictions on trajectories for those launches to ensure safety.
The license doesn’t have an explicit expiration date, he said, but would need to be modified if the company changes aspects of the rocket. “I would expect to see most of these companies innovating and changing their vehicles and having variations to their license, which means it’s an ongoing thing.”
Macleod said the CAA is dealing with seven other launch companies, the identities of which are proprietary, interested in or formally applying for launch licenses.
While RFA is the first European launch company to get a license, there is no guarantee it will be the first to conduct a launch. German company Isar Aerospace is planning to launch its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Spaceport in Norway and is working with Norwegian regulators on a launch license. The company, which once planned to conduct the first Spectrum launch last year, has not provided recent updates on its plans.
Macleod declined to speculate if RFA would launch first. “What I can tell you is that we have determined that we think RFA are, with their vehicle, able to operate safely,” he said. “We think that they are in the right place to be heading towards the very first vertical launch from the U.K. It may well be the first European one.”
