TAMPA, Fla. — Skyrora has become the first British company to secure a launch license from the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), though a lack of available launch pads could push its first suborbital flight from SaxaVord Spaceport into 2026.
The CAA license, announced Aug. 4, allows for up to 16 launches from SaxaVord using Skylark L, an 11-meter suborbital rocket with a 50-kilogram payload capacity.
Skylark L flew for the first time in 2022 from Iceland using the company’s mobile launch facility. It reached 300 meters, well short of the 100-kilometer Kármán line, because of a software issue.
The rocket is designed to de-risk technologies that will be used in Skyrora XL, a vehicle twice as tall and capable of placing up to 315 kilograms into low Earth orbit.
While the company is exploring other sites, including international options that could use its mobile launch facility, Skyrora head of government affairs Alan Thompson said its priority remains flying from SaxaVord, located in Scotland’s Shetland Islands.
“Unfortunately, earlier in the year, we were told that there was no longer availability to launch from either of the pads at SaxaVord,” Thompson said via email.
“Therefore, despite having a vehicle ready and a launch license, it is unlikely that Skyrora will be able to complete its launch from the U.K. this year.”
He did not elaborate on the shortage of available pads.
Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), which secured a CAA orbital license last year, postponed its maiden flight from SaxaVord to 2025 following a launchpad explosion during a static fire test.
Scotland-based Orbex also aims to conduct its maiden launch from SaxaVord this year after halting work to develop a nearby spaceport, although it is still awaiting a license.
Colin Macleod, the CAA’s head of space regulation, said during an Aug. 4 media briefing that German startup HyImpulse Technologies has an Air Navigation Order to fly a much smaller rocket up to 50 kilometers from SaxaVord.
Skyrora first applied for a broader spaceflight activities license from the CAA in August 2022, expecting a nine- to 18-month review. A year later, it submitted a separate application focused on Skylark L to expedite the process, but still encountered delays.
“The launch license process took longer than anticipated, but we understand that this is an industry-first for all parties involved,” Thompson said.
“It is more important to get things right rather than do them quickly.”
Going for orbit
Thompson said two of the three stages for Skyrora XL are complete, with the first stage expected soon. The company plans to carry out integration tests for the XL vehicle next year, depending on manufacturing timelines.
“Having completed the process for this sub-orbital launch, we hope this bodes well and helps to contribute towards a faster process for our orbital license,” he said.
Macleod declined to give a timeframe for other licenses in the works during the media briefing.
“They progress at the pace of, obviously, my assessment team, but also at the pace of the technical readiness of the operators, the maturity of the technology and how ready they are to move towards launch,” he said.
Skyrora is the third rocket company to get a CAA launch license for space, following RFA and U.S.-based Virgin Orbit, which collapsed into bankruptcy shortly after an unsuccessful attempt to reach orbit in January 2023 from Spaceport Cornwall, in southwest England.
Macleod said the regulator aims to license complex launch operations as early as possible, enabling “launchers to focus on our primary concern, which is safety to the public, and our second commitment, which is to ensure and support growth wherever possible.”
He said “we haven’t had any operation which has been delayed due to a regulatory license decision, and all the licenses that we’ve issued so far have been ahead of technical readiness, or contractual readiness or things outside the regulator’s remit.”
While Skylark L was originally intended to complete final checks on subsystems before their use in Skyrora XL, the company said it is seeing rising demand for its ability to provide up to six minutes of microgravity for experiments at a fraction of the cost of an orbital mission.
The rocket’s inaugural U.K. flight is slated to carry a proof-of-concept mission for a space telemetry provider, demonstrating how Skylark L could be used to communicate with satellites.
