Skyrora, an Edinburgh-based rocket company, hopes to become the first business to launch an orbital mission from the UK at the country’s largest testing facility, which opened today in Midlothian, Scotland.
The company hopes Skyrora XL, a three-stage launch rocket that stands at 23 metres tall can launch as early as this year.
It can carry a payload capacity of 315kg as well as travel into the sun-synchronous space, which is an orbit that travels over the polar regions and is in a fixed position relative to the sun.
Apparently emitting half of the carbon emissions compared to engines that use liquid oxygen and kerosene produce, the rocket's specialist 70kN bi-propellent engines were developed at the company's testing site in Midlothian.
Skyrora signed an agreement with the Shetlands-based SaxaVord spaceport last year.
Launch sites in the UK have received large amounts of government funding in a push to create a British space presence, with similar sites in Cornwall and Wales under development.
The UK has only ever completed one orbital launch, Black Arrow in 1971, which actually took off in Australia due to economic issues.
Head of engineering Dr Jack James Marlow said, “the new purpose-built Midlothian site allows us to take direct charge of the development cycle in-house."
"By reducing our reliance on third parties and cultivating specialist knowledge within the company, the Midlothian location gives us much closer control of the quality and rapid development of Skyrora XL as we prepare for its first demo launch.”
"The opening of our Midlothian site means that Britain is another step closer to unlocking its launch capacity and potential to play a bigger role in the space economy,” chief executive Volodymyr Levykin said.
Last week, Virgin Orbit along with Welsh start-up Space Forge announced plans to launch the first satellite made in Wales out of the spaceport in Wales this summer.