SaxaVord deal puts Skyrora XL rocket on launchpad
UK rocket company Skyrora has agreed a multi-launch deal with the SaxaVord spaceport on Unst in the Shetland Islands as it moves closer to launching its XL rocket.
The multi-launch agreement with SaxaVord, previously known as the Shetland Space Centre, will run for 10 years, giving Skyrora the ability to build towards a target of 16 launches a year by 2030.
In a statement, Volodymyr Levykin, Skyrora’s founder and CEO, said: “We have made no secret of our ambition to be the first company to launch from UK soil so it's really exciting to agree to this multi-launch deal with SaxaVord. The UK is a world leader in space technology, and this latest move brings us another crucial step closer to offering a significant space service from our own soil.”
Skyrora set for orbital launches with €3m ESA co-funding
Edinburgh-based Skyrora has been testing increasingly larger rockets with short high-altitude launches since 2018 in the build up to the proposed launch in 2022. In 2020 it conducted the first rocket test on UK soil in 50 years as well as launching its Skylark Micro from Iceland. These preparations have been moving towards launching the three-stage Skyrora XL rocket to orbit, which is over 22m tall and capable of carrying up to 315kg to orbit.
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