After nearly a three-year wait, Scottish space company Skyrora has secured the United Kingdom’s first vertical launch license for a domestically based rocket firm, paving the way for suborbital missions from the SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands.
The approval, dated July 24 but announced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Aug. 5, marks a milestone for Britain’s emerging space industry, though it follows a similar license issued to German firm Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in January for orbital attempts from the same site.
The license authorizes Skyrora to conduct up to 16 launches annually of its Skylark L suborbital rocket, with a maximum of two per month and one every 24 hours, subject to additional approvals such as insurance and spaceport arrangements.
While the permit is now active, the company’s first flight is not imminent and could slip into 2026 as preparations continue.
Skyrora, founded in 2017, has adopted an iterative development strategy, progressing through a series of small suborbital vehicles named Skylark to refine technologies for future orbital capabilities.
Earlier models, including Skylark Nano and Micro, relied on solid rocket motors, but Skylark L—a near 12-meter tall vehicle capable of carrying a 50-kilogram payload—serves primarily as a testbed for propellants and systems destined for the company’s flagship orbital rocket, Skyrora XL.
The Skyrora XL, designed to deliver up to 315 kilograms of small satellites into orbit, draws comparisons to Rocket Lab’s Electron due to its similar payload capacity.
However, the XL stands taller at nearly 23 meters and wider at 2.2 meters in diameter—nearly double Electron’s 1.2 meters—while featuring carbon composite construction, nine 3D-printed engines on the first stage, a vacuum-optimized engine on the second, and a third kick stage for precise orbital insertions.
This performance parity despite the larger size stems from Skyrora’s propellant choice: kerosene fuel paired with high-test peroxide (HTP) as the oxidizer. HTP, a room-temperature storable compound, simplifies engine design, reduces cryogenic handling challenges, and promotes cleaner combustion.
It echoes the propellant used in Britain’s Black Arrow rocket of the 1960s, which successfully orbited a satellite even though the program had been canceled before this launch in the early 1970s for unrelated reasons.
Skyrora further emphasizes sustainability by producing its own kerosene, dubbed Ecosene, from unrecyclable plastic waste. The company claims Ecosene lowers pollutant emissions and enhances burn efficiency compared to traditional RP-1 kerosene.
Development milestones include a 2022 test of the Skyrora XL’s second stage and a prior Skylark L launch from Iceland that year, which ended in failure. Following that setback, Skyrora applied for the UK license, culminating in this week’s approval after an extended regulatory process that has drawn comparisons to faster timelines elsewhere in the industry.
With commercial interest in its suborbital offerings and ambitions for orbital flights, Skyrora’s license represents a step toward revitalizing UK launch capabilities. The company must now finalize operational details before rolling out Skylark L for its inaugural UK mission.
(Lead image: Screenshot from Skyroma CGI video showing launch from SaxaVord).
