SaxaVord Spaceport is considered the foremost of the UK’s seven proposed spaceports, drawing attention as the favoured site for European launch disrupter Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) as well as HyImpulse, and wider recognition as a potential site of Europe’s rapid vertical launch capability. Early crashes and slow rocket development have cast a dour eye over UK launch ambitions, leading some to expect further disappointment. Can the spell be broken?
Located at Lamba Ness in Unst, an island in the Shetlands, the spaceport prides itself as the UK’s only licensed vertical launch spaceport, a status unlikely to change now that Orbex abruptly shuttered development at Spaceport Sutherland. Unlike more southerly sites like Cape Canaveral, Guyana Space Centre, or Baikonur, SaxaVord’s vertical launch capability is suited to sun-synchronous and polar orbits, suitable for science and military applications rather than the insertion of LEO commercial connectivity satellites.
In March, Frank Strang, CEO of SaxaVord, reported, “We are putting the finishing touches to infrastructure on site to support our partners – in particular Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) which has made a significant financial investment in our spaceport.”
SaxaVord and ‘Space is Hard’
The site has been marred by the memory of RFA ONE, the signature launch system of Rocket Factory Augsberg, exploding on the site during a first-stage test fire in August 2024, compounding existing pessimism after the failure of the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne system at Spaceport Cornwall in January 2023 due to a dislodged fuel filter.
At SpaceComm Expo 2025, RFA announced their support for intelligence and commercial satellites at SaxaVord following the Trinity House agreement between the UK and Germany on defense co-operation.
Jörn Spurmann, co-founder and CCO at RFA, said: “In a world where security challenges are evolving at an unprecedented pace, the partnership between RFA, SaxaVord, and the UK and German governments has never been more vital.
A step toward euro space sovereignty?
Nations worldwide have begun recognising space capability as a military and intelligence necessity, particularly those bordering belligerent states, or those with political will to enhance defence spending.
This has led to trends of demand in the market for space data, particularly satellite imagery, national space programs of all stripes, and most extravagantly, native launch capacity.
In March 2025, Chatham House Institute Senior Research Fellow Katya Bego told Orbital Today that “In Europe and the UK we’re going to see this big push into sovereignty to enable alternative capabilities instead of being beholden to American – or indeed Chinese government and corporate systems.”
“We have long lost the race to offer the most cost-effective launch systems,” Dr. Adam Baker, Technical Director of the Space Propulsion Working Group and Senior Lecturer in Astronautics at Kingston University tells Orbital Today. “But the UK’s launch offering will crucially serve the needs of customers who have requirements for specific orbits and specific timescales that SpaceX’ service doesn’t meet.”
This independence from the international politics of securing space launch from allies, particularly those of evolving loyalties, was a very valuable thing, he argued, especially given that the 200+ nations developing or exploring space technologies would themselves need to go to market to secure the scientific and industrial capital to realise their goals.
“The UK is about to rejoin a very exclusive club of launchers in a world where demand for space launch capability is growing extremely fast.”
Microlaunch specialisation?
The primary space launch model, called rideshare, in which dozens of small satellites are loaded into a heavy-lift, reliable rocket, has been decades in the making. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is the product of billions of dollars of funding, logistical delays, and massive setbacks, achieved through the remarkable persistence of NASA and its c
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The majority of governments lack the resources and patience to do the same, so often aim lower.
“SpaceX and other international launch service providers’ offer increasingly lower prices,” Dr. Baker admits. “But that glosses over that they offer a mass transit system, or the equivalent of a bus. Transport in the 21st century needs both mass transit systems and more expensive private means, such as taxis and business jets, for people or goods who are time-constrained, need to go to destinations not well served by mass transit, and who are less price sensitive.”
This rosy private jet analogy translates to the microlaunch model, in which smaller rockets insert smaller, sometimes single-satellite, payloads into low-Earth orbit.
“We will very soon have the capability for rocket launch on the European continent by having micro launchers. Sovereign launch is important for our two nations and allies across Europe.” German Ambassador to London, Miguel Berger said in a recent statement.
Customers seeking microlaunch missions tend to be scientific, digging into deep administrative funds. Martin Coates, CEO at Orbex made a more economic case for microlaunch as a means of replacing constellation satellites on sharp timescales – a necessity for mission-critical services which cannot tolerate downtime.
The road to SaxaVord’s first launch
The grandiose objectives of the UK Space Agency appear to remain far off, given mounting uncertainty over the engineering pedigree of unproven rockets by young companies, fears of the British regulatory environment, and long-neglected British industrial policy creating a conspicuous dearth of tech capital compared to the previous century.
“It’s unclear whether the UK will be able to offer a commercially sustainable space launch service in the long term,” admits Dr. Baker, who favours a more Eurocentric space future for the British isles, standing upon the shoulders of its heavy and enduring commitments to ESA to compete through the strength of a rising power bloc.
He hopes to see a more joined-up regulatory approach in space that attracts investment and feeds national industry.
“We need supportive regulations focused not just on safety and sustainability – which are important, but must be balanced with commercial needs,” he tells Orbital Today. “I would hope to see the review of our spaceflight regulations five years after they became law, streamlining the administration of launch service providers and operators to achieve commercial success, thanks to, rather than in spite of the regulator – but also doing this within the tight environmental and air/sea traffic safety constraints that are a feature of modern Britain.”
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