Albion Alone: How the UK Space Sector Copes without US Space Capabilities

The sharp pivot in U.S. foreign policy away from Europe is gradually becoming a new reality, one in which EU countries and the United Kingdom are increasingly confronted with the need to be self-reliant. This also applies to the space sector, where European nations will now have to manage without the technological base and space capabilities of the United States.

Several new startups, as well as broader pan-European cooperation in the space sector, could help navigate this turbulent period. The path will be far from fast, but it is precisely the strengthening of the private space sector today that could ensure a certain level of independence and facilitate the development of a sovereign space program for the EU and the UK. New infrastructure is being built to meet the needs of new players, and startups are eagerly offering their innovations to attract investment and actively taking advantage of government support programs. The UK’s recent steps to enhance its aerospace capabilities demonstrate how a forced separation from U.S. space capabilities may not weaken, but, paradoxically, strengthen the country’s space sector.

Spaceports are key to the development of the space sector

When discussing the development of the UK’s space sector in recent years, one interesting detail stands out: the country’s ambition to create a full-fledged infrastructure for conducting space missions on its own territory. In one sense, the British Isles are geographically disadvantaged, as it’s well known that launching rockets from the equator is more convenient and economically efficient than from northern regions. Launching from the equator can provide fuel savings of up to 10%, while the Earth’s rotational speed at the equator gives the rocket an additional boost, easing its initial acceleration.

However, this rule doesn’t always apply. For reaching most polar and sun-synchronous orbits, it is better to launch rockets from sites located closer to the Earth’s poles. The United Kingdom is seeking to take advantage of this exception and, at the beginning of this decade, launched an ambitious effort to build its first spaceports.

This led to the concept of the SaxaVord Spaceport on the Shetland Islands, an archipelago of over a hundred small islands located between Norway and the British Isles. The vertical orbital launch site was planned for Unst, the northernmost island of the archipelago. The initial developer was Farningham Planning, which began construction work in 2021. SaxaVord was expected to host up to 30 space launches per year, primarily to sun-synchronous and polar orbits. To achieve this, the plan included building three launch pads at SaxaVord, along with supporting infrastructure such as rocket storage hangars and a satellite tracking station.

By the end of 2021, SaxaVord already had several potential clients: the rocket startup Skyrora had signed a contract for several orbital launches from the spaceport by the end of the decade; the German company HyImpulse Technologies planned to test its proprietary rocket engines and conduct suborbital launches there; and the American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin expressed interest in testing its innovative Pathfinder satellite launch system at the site. Construction was proceeding on schedule, and it seemed likely that by the end of 2022, the first carrier rockets would indeed begin launching from SaxaVord.

However, British bureaucracy and a lack of sufficient launch orders led to delays in putting SaxaVord into operation. The first to postpone its operations was HyImpulse, citing the site’s insufficient launch infrastructure and the absence of a launch license. The company had planned to launch its SR75 sounding rocket from SaxaVord between December 2023 and November 2024, but ultimately chose the Koonibba Test Range in Australia instead.

Finally, in December 2023, SaxaVord received its first license from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to conduct up to 30 orbital launches per year. In April 2024, this was supplemented by a range safety license that allowed SaxaVord to establish a secure zone around its launchpad to minimize risks to aircraft and ships potentially crossing launch or booster drop trajectories.

Then, in October 2024, the British rocket company Orbex announced plans to conduct its space launches from SaxaVord. However, to do this, the company had to cancel all its previously scheduled launches from a different UK spaceport that was still under construction: Sutherland (also known as Space Hub Sutherland or UKVL Sutherland), which effectively put that ambitious project on hold.

In 2022, Orbex laid out plans to build the Sutherland spaceport in northern mainland Scotland, intending to carry out the majority of its launches there. Progress was promising, and by early May 2023, construction of the launchpads had begun. Like SaxaVord, Sutherland was intended to be one of the UK’s main sites for vertical orbital launches to polar and sun-synchronous orbits.

Initially, the plan was for Orbex to use Sutherland exclusively, while Lockheed Martin and other commercial operators would carry out tests and launches from SaxaVord. However, after the Americans lost interest in the spaceport’s potential, Orbex decided to shift all its planned launches to the more fully prepared SaxaVord. This decision ultimately became the main reason behind the freezing of the Sutherland project.

As of now, Sutherland’s fate is uncertain, but each year of construction delay brings the spaceport closer to permanent abandonment. Nevertheless, there are positive signs even in the story of the frozen Sutherland, since the growing focus on strengthening space capabilities in Europe and the UK may attract new space operators interested in reviving the project.

In the context of British spaceports, it’s also worth mentioning the now-defunct Spaceport Cornwall in southern England, which was intended to serve as a hub for horizontal orbital launches by Virgin Orbit. The company planned to use modified Boeing 747 aircraft, under whose wings the LauncherOne rockets were mounted. In this way, the rockets would begin their orbital journey from the air, which significantly reduces fuel costs for launch. On the other hand, this method also introduces certain complications in trajectory planning.

As of now, the number of space launches from Spaceport Cornwall stands at just one: unfortunately, that one ended in failure. On January 9, 2023, Virgin Orbit launched the Start Me Up mission from the site. A modified Boeing 747 named Cosmic Girl was used to carry LauncherOne into the air. While the airborne deployment was successful, an anomaly occurred during the rocket’s second stage, resulting in the loss of the mission’s payload: nine small satellites from various commercial and government clients, including the UK Ministry of Defence and the US National Reconnaissance Office. What was meant to be the triumphant first orbital launch from British soil turned into a fiasco that ultimately sealed the fate of Richard Branson’s company: its bankruptcy was declared shortly after the failed mission.

After the 2023 failure and the bankruptcy of Virgin Orbit, the future of the Cornwall spaceport immediately became uncertain. There were ideas about reviving the site for horizontal launches in 2025, but so far, there has been neither concrete progress on the matter nor any official announcement from a British company offering horizontal launch services to clients.

Looking at the UK’s setbacks in building space launch infrastructure, it may seem that the country has stalled. However, it’s important to remember that the UK only set the goal of developing its spaceports four years ago. With that in mind, the very existence of at least one fully operational launch site with all necessary licenses—namely, SaxaVord—can be considered a good start. The first launches from its territory, and indeed, the first space launches from the British Isles as a whole, are expected to take place by the end of this year. By then, the situation surrounding the Sutherland and Cornwall spaceports may also be clearer.

Both the government and private space companies understand well that having domestic spaceports is of strategic importance for the country’s space sector. It’s not just about money or private launch contracts: national launch facilities play a significant role in strengthening the United Kingdom’s national security. Given the fact that Russia, Europe’s primary strategic adversary, is located directly across the North Pole from the UK, and that strained relations are likely to persist for decades, having launch infrastructure on home soil gains new significance. The ability to launch domestically produced reconnaissance satellites from British territory will be an important pillar of national security in the future.

At present, the spaceport situation in Europe remains rather complex. Apart from the United Kingdom, only Norway (Andøya Spaceport) and Sweden (Esrange Space Center) currently have operational spaceports. Andøya Spaceport, which opened in 2023, became the first functioning orbital spaceport in Europe and carried out its first orbital launch on March 30, 2025, using a Spectrum launch vehicle developed by the German company Isar Aerospace. Sweden’s Esrange Space Center has a longer launch history, having been founded in 1966. However, a new launchpad specifically for vertical orbital launches was only introduced in 2023. Since then, several orbital launches have taken place from the site, mainly involving scientific satellites and stratospheric balloons.

A painful breakup and a stronger future 

That Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States would force Europe to increase funding for its space sector was clear to European officials as soon as the results of the latest U.S. election became known. At the end of November 2024, during panel discussions at the Space Tech Expo Europe conference, there were widespread calls to reduce European countries’ dependence on American space capabilities. The primary focus was on SpaceX, which the European Space Agency (ESA) had been compelled to rely on for space launches.

The dependency on Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 emerged primarily due to the delayed debut of the European Ariane 6 and Vega C launch vehicles by more than a year. Ariane 6 completed its first commercial flight only in early March 2025, while Vega C, despite initially launching successfully in July 2022, suffered a catastrophic failure during its second flight in December. As a result, the rocket was sent back for a two-year-long modernization process.

The first launch of the upgraded Vega C took place on December 5, 2024. Although the rocket successfully delivered the Sentinel-1 satellite into orbit, that flight was the only post-upgrade success. The next Vega C launch was made on April 29, 2025, when the rocket successfully placed the Biomass SAR monitoring satellite into orbit. Biomass is part of ESA’s Earth Explorer program for remote Earth observation and the study of the planet’s dynamic ecosystems.

In theory, Europe’s rocket fleet could be strengthened by a number of relatively young launch startups. The British startup Skyrora is already offering commercial clients its launch capabilities, which are currently represented by two types of commercial launch vehicles still under development:

• Skyrora XL – the company’s main three-stage orbital launch vehicle, designed to deliver payloads of up to 315 kg to low Earth orbit (LEO). The first launch of Skyrora XL is planned for late 2025 from SaxaVord.
• Skylark L – the second rocket in the company’s future fleet. This single-stage suborbital rocket is designed for commercial microgravity research missions.

The British company’s rocket arsenal also includes the experimental Skylark Micro and Skylark Nano rockets. These two small solid-fuel rockets are being developed for test flights and technology demonstrations; Skyrora has already conducted launches of these rockets from sites in Scotland.

It’s worth noting that launch vehicles are not Skyrora’s only strength. The company is also aiming to expand into a broad range of space-related activities, with a particular focus on implementing environmentally friendly technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions from space launches. A major breakthrough for the British startup in the field of eco-friendly fuel was the development of Ecosene, a rocket fuel produced from recycled plastic waste. Testing of rocket engines running on Ecosene fuel took place at the end of January 2020.

Skyrora has long recognized that the future of the rocket industry lies in the implementation of adaptive manufacturing technologies, particularly 3D printing, in the production of rockets and their key components. The startup initiated the manufacture of a series of printed rocket engines, leading to the creation of the Skyforce engine (currently upgraded to Skyforce-2), the LEO Engine, and the Third Stage, some components of which are entirely 3D-printed.

All three engines are employed on the Skyrora XL rocket: the Skyforce-2, with a thrust of 70 kN, is used in the rocket’s first and second stages during ascent, while the upper-stage LEO Engine is designed to operate in vacuum and includes a multiple-ignition system needed for precise satellite placement into orbit. The payload section on the rocket’s third stage can also be adjusted using the Third Stage engine, which can generate 3.5 kN of thrust. This engine also serves as the main propulsion unit for the company’s Space Tug, which we’ll discuss later. The single-stage Skylark L rocket uses a liquid-fueled rocket engine of the same name, featuring regenerative cooling and delivering 31 kN of thrust.

In addition to the two main engines for the Skyrora XL, the company is also developing a miniature engine used in its small-scale demonstration rockets (left). The image also shows the Leo Engine (center) and the Skyforce-2 (right).

Skyrora emerged in June 2017, at a time when there was not even any discussion of building domestic spaceports in the British Isles. With this in mind, the company proposed the construction of small mobile launch complexes. The modular assembly system of such launchpads gave the startup a high level of mobility in organizing rocket launches and allowed for launch preparations to be completed within just a few days.

Another innovation from Skyrora lies in its aim to enable the removal of rocket stages and other large debris from Earth’s orbit. For this purpose, the company is developing the Space Tug—essentially a maneuverable Skyrora XL third stage.

The Space Tug’s main function will be the active removal of orbital debris fragments through capture and deorbiting. In addition, the space tug will also be capable of performing satellite refueling operations, proximity operations, docking, and relocating satellites to different operational orbits.

Skyrora’s focus is not only on the future, but also on the proud past of British space exploration. The company facilitated the repatriation to the UK of the spent first stage of the first British launch vehicle, Black Arrow R3, which successfully placed the British satellite Prospero into orbit in 1971. The rocket fragment had been stored for a long time at the Woomera launch site in Australia, until the company’s management decided to organize the operation to return the used module to its homeland and fully funded the associated costs of the journey. The returned Black Arrow rocket fragments were initially displayed in Scotland and then leased to the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust Museum, where they are still preserved today.

The example of just one startup from the United Kingdom demonstrates how a single space startup can offer an entire cluster of on-demand space services, simultaneously covering nearly every significant aspect of the space market. Of course, Skyrora is not the only ambitious startup in the UK or Europe, but its example is particularly fitting when outlining the private sector’s potential to strengthen the country’s space capabilities. Currently, numerous players are awaiting the necessary influx of investments that will enable them to continue to develop their businesses.

The European Space Agency, for its part, is already showing that it is interested in systematically supporting new startups. In November of last year, ESA provided a number of European and British startups with investments totaling €44.22 million. However, there was only one British startup in this list: Orbex. Nevertheless, future funding stages may include a broader range of participants.

The convergence of “Foggy Albion” and Europe

The course for developing the UK’s space sector was outlined in its National Space Strategy, which was adopted in September 2021. Specifically, the document outlined a 10-year vision for the UK as one of the most innovative and attractive space economies in the world. Gradually, some provisions of the National Space Strategy have started to be realized, which is evident in the figures: between 2020 and 2025 alone, several billion pounds have been invested in the country’s space sector.

The role of government investments, particularly from the UK Space Agency (UKSA), has grown significantly. For instance, in the 2018/19 period, the agency invested £373 million in the development of the country’s space sector. In the 2022/23 period, this amount nearly doubled, reaching £647 million.

Today, UKSA is implementing its own funding programs, such as the National Space Innovation Programme (NSIP). Since its launch in 2020, the program has provided over £25 million to support innovative space technologies. In 2023, £65 million was allocated for new competitions under NSIP. In recent years, several promising space projects have received funding through this program:

• SatVu — a project developing an innovative high-resolution infrared sensor for satellites. The SatVu sensor is designed for detecting thermal anomalies and monitoring the state of the environment. In November 2024, SatVu also secured an additional £10 million in a Series B investment round.
• Space projects from Northumbria University — Northumbria University has launched several space initiatives, including a project to develop laser optical communication technology for small satellites (CubeSats), enabling large data transfers from space to Earth in mere seconds.
• Space projects from Rolls-Royce — with government support, the company received £4.8 million to develop a nuclear microreactor for long-duration space missions.
• Super Sharp Space Systems — a British company that received £5 million from NSIP to implement its project to develop a foldable thermal imaging space telescope for monitoring climate change from space.
• A joint project between Lúnasa Space and Orbit Fab — both companies are developing technologies for safely docking satellites to refuel them in orbit, part of the growing field of in-space orbital services. Lúnasa Space is focused on integrating and testing the autonomous RPO (rendezvous and proximity operations) kit, while Orbit Fab is working on the interface for satellite docking and refueling (GRASP).

NSIP regularly announces new funding competitions, supporting both early-stage development (through its Kickstarter program) and more mature projects aimed at commercialization (labeled as Major Projects). The latest NSIP Call 2 competition was announced in March 2025, with a budget of at least £17 million for this year.

In addition to NSIP funding, the UK Space Agency manages its own Space Cluster Infrastructure Fund (SCIF). Recently, the fund allocated £8 million to Space Forge, headquartered in Cardiff, Wales. With these funds, the company will create the National Microgravity Research Centre, which will play a key role in developing new space manufacturing technologies, including the use of inorganic crystal structures grown in microgravity conditions. This could potentially give the UK a significant boost in creating new types of semiconductor materials for use in space electronics.

UKSA also stimulates investment in the space sector through initiatives like the Investment Acceleration Program. This initiative provides a broad toolkit to support high-potential British space companies on their investment journey, helping them scale and attract private capital. The Investment Acceleration Program collaborates with investment accelerators to provide specialized support and opportunities throughout the development of emerging space businesses.

Other government funds support the space sector indirectly through contributions the UK makes to ESA programs. For example, in November 2022, the UK contributed £1.6 billion, which will be allocated to ESA’s space programs up until 2027. In return, ESA directs budget funds to support British initiatives: from mid-2022 to the end of 2024, British companies and universities received contracts from ESA totaling £844 million.

This circulation of public funds from the UK government to ESA and back demonstrates how the British and European space sectors are gradually converging. This forced convergence is beginning to bear fruit, reflected in the growing integration of space infrastructure between the two, an increasing number of joint projects based on domestically developed space technologies, and a larger share of collaborative projects in various aerospace sectors. Perhaps in the future, moving away from space dependence on the United States will become the key factor that allows the UK and the EU to strengthen their position as major space powers.