In December, SaxaVord received permission to operate the first vertical launch spaceport in the United Kingdom, enabling up to 30 launches annually.
The chief commercial officer of Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) stated that anticipation is growing for their “Olympic gold medal” moment this summer.
It will be Europe’s first launch of satellites into space, if all goes according to plan.
The 30-meter-tall, three-stage RFA One launcher, according to Jorn Spurmann, can propel a 1,300 lb payload into a sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth.
He stated that “everything looks positive” for the summer debut, but a lot will depend on how well they test the product.
“We plan to be on pad in the summer and start the (testing) campaign,” stated Mr. Spurmann.
“Then we have an anticipated first launch attempt and we see how it goes.”
“We have a launch pad on the Shetland Islands that is exclusively for RFA,” he continued. Thus, we are not under any time constraints.”
Promotion
Since the project has been years in the making, Mr. Spurmann said that the about 300-person RFA team will view the first successful launch as a “Olympic gold medal” moment.
This is not the only firm that intends to use the launch pads at SaxaVord Spaceport on the northernmost of the Shetland Islands, the island of Unst.
The UK’s first vertical launch spaceport licence, which permits up to 30 launches year, was given to SaxaVord in December.
There are about 600 people living on Unst, and Mr. Spurmann indicated that most of them support the initiative.
“The locals, they pretty much realise what a big opportunity it is for them.”
In the months preceding the first flight, a “hot test” of the rocket’s first-stage engines at the launch pad is anticipated.
In the end, RFA hopes to save money by reusing the lower stage of its rockets, much like SpaceX, which is led by Elon Musk, uses Falcon series rockets.
