from the who-will-be-this-week's-Star-Launcher? dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
At the last Farnborough International Airshow in 2018, the United Kingdom started the countdown to the first orbital launch from the country. The U.K. Space Agency announced it selected a site near the town of Sutherland in northern Scotland to host a vertical launch facility, and awarded $38 million to two companies to perform launches there. Other launch companies and prospective spaceports also announced plans to develop and launch rockets in the county.
Four years later, as the aerospace industry prepares to squeeze onto trains and line up for shuttle buses to return to Farnborough, that countdown still hasn’t reached zero. The Sutherland launch site hasn’t been built yet, while British companies that might use it or other launch sites are still working on their vehicles. The first orbital launch from the U.K. now appears likely to be performed by a U.S. company, Virgin Orbit, whose LauncherOne air-launch system is scheduled to fly from Spaceport Cornwall as soon as September.
Launch companies in the U.K., though, are not deterred by that slow progress. While lagging American launch vehicle developers, they see themselves at the forefront of the European small launch industry, with ambitions to begin launches in the next year or two.
One of the companies that received awards from the U.K. government in 2018 was Orbex, which is developing a small launch vehicle called Prime it plans to launch from Sutherland, capable of placing up to 180 kilograms into orbit. [...]
In close competition with Orbex is Skyrora. It is working on Skyrora XL, a three-stage rocket designed to place payloads weighing up to 315 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbit. It is also working on Skylark L, a suborbital sounding rocket intended to test some of the technologies needed for the larger Skyrora XL.
[...] Skyrora announced June 7 it hired a former SpaceX executive as its new chief operations officer. Lee Rosen spent a decade at SpaceX as vice president of mission and launch operations, and before that served 23 years in the U.S. Air Force in various launch-related roles.
[...] Beyond Orbex and Skyrora, there are a handful of other launch ventures based in the U.K. Most are still in the very early stages or have made little progress. [...]
One company trying to separate itself from that pack is Astraius. The company, founded in 2019, is working on an air-launch system. Rather than drop a rocket from a wing or fuselage, like Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus or Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne, the rocket would be carried inside a C-17 cargo aircraft. The plane’s rear doors would open in flight and parachutes would pull the rocket out the back, stabilizing it vertically so it could ignite its engines and ascend to orbit.
[...] Astraius envisions flying out of Prestwick Spaceport, the current Prestwick Airport near Glasgow. Development of facilities there to support Astraius launches, funded by an £80 million ($98 million) regional economic development package, is proceeding “at pace,” the company says.
[...] The countdown clock for U.K. launch will still be ticking at this year’s Farnborough air show, but when the industry returns for the next one in 2024, one or more companies may have finally achieved liftoff.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @08:00AM (4 children)
Sun never sets, and all that, stiff upper lip, keep calm and carry on. But why is this fine article here?
(posting AC to avoid the inevitable retribution, and since I cannot post as a pure AC.)
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @11:29AM (2 children)
More launch sites and more launch providers, particularly in a country that hasn't launched rockets before is not interesting news? If it isn't about SpaceX then don't go to print?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:51PM (1 child)
Don't panic, it's just schizo ari bashing britbongs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2022, @02:04AM
Not going to be any of that, anymore! He'll have to log in, and then janrinok will have him! Don't think he has all metal teeth, do you? Moonraker? Bond, James Bond, compensatory fictional character, compensating for the fall of the British Empire.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday July 26 2022, @02:16PM
Some of us still live in the UK.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].