Scottish rocket builder Skyrora gets lift-off in Shetland
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Meanwhile Donald Trump's "America First" policies and the US President's fall-out with Elon Musk of SpaceX have injected renewed vigour into the race to ramp up independent launch capabilities in Europe.
At the moment the continent's only spaceport is in the South American region of French Guiana, more than 4,000 miles from Paris. Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket successfully launched from there earlier this year, more than 10 years after it was commissioned and five years later than originally planned.
Scotland has set its sights on becoming a leader in the European coterie of aspiring space nations, and has moved a significant step closer to achieving this ambition with today's announcement that Skyrora has become the first company in the UK to be granted permission for for vertical rocket launches that company plans to carry out from the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Isles. SaxaVord was granted permission to conduct launches by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in December 2023, making it the UK's first licenced spaceport.
The SkyLark team in Cumbernauld (Image: Skyrora)
'It is essential that the UK has sovereign launch capabilities," says Volodymyr Levykin, founder and chief executive of Skyrora. "Not only to unlock commercial activity for companies that need to access space and to help achieve the government's objectives for becoming a global player in the space sector, but also from a strategic defence consideration."
Growing global uncertainty exemplified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine underscores the truth of this statement from Mr Levykin, whose company has suffered the direct effects of the war in his home country.
A 1998 graduate from the Zaporizhzhia National Technical University with a Master's degree in computer science, Mr Levykin spent his early career working in the online dating sector. This included a spell as an executive at the now-defunct Cupid dating empire based in Edinburgh.
He moved to Silicon Valley to run another IT company based there after selling his shares in Cupid, but returned to his former home in [[Edinburgh]] to set up Skyrora and its parent company Skyrora Ventures in 2017. The rocket company has been making its SkyLark vehicles from a facility at the back end of an industrial estate in Cumbernauld since July 2022.
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About half of Skyrora's employees are located in Ukraine, where the "Rocket City" of Dnipro was home to Soviet space rocket manufacturing during that era. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the remnants of its space program in Ukraine were reorganized into their own space agency.
Mr Levykin founded Skyrora shortly after the UK government introduced the Space Industry Bill to support development of the national sector, and naturally sought out the expertise in his homeland to bolster capability within the business. Being a rocket company in a war zone following the invasion, operations were quickly upended as new systems were put in place to protect the technology and the company's people.
It's one of many obstacles that Skyrora has overcome to reach today's licencing announcement ahead of a programme that is expected to reach 16 launches per year by 2030.
"Becoming the first home-grown company in the UK to receive a launch operator licence is a testament to the hard work and dedication of everyone at Skyrora," Mr Levykin said. "We are pleased to be able to move forward with our launch plans.
"Given that operators like us, alongside the CAA, have been forging a new path, the journey to getting our UK licence has been a long but ultimately rewarding one."
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Others are due to follow with another Scottish rocket manufacturer, Orbex, now aiming to achieve its first satellite launch from SaxaVord in 2026.
Orbex put work on its own spaceport in Sutherland on hold in December of last year following the surprise announcement that it had come to an agreement with former rival SaxaVord to use its launch facilities. Orbex is now focusing on the development of rockets designed specifically for launch from the Unst site.
This has raised questions about the financial viability of the Sutherland spaceport going forward, but regardless of how that plays out, Scotland continues to boast outsized capability in the orbital economy with "end-to-end" expertise ranging from launchpads and rocket manufacturing to satellite construction and downstream data crunchers.
It has been estimated that by 2030, the international market for launch, satellite, payload and space data services will be worth $1 trillion (£772 billion) annually. Scotland aims to capture about £4bn of this, a relatively small but nonetheless ambitious target that would go a long way towards revitalising the country's economy.
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In this sense, today's licencing announcement isn't limited to one company making rockets in Cumbernauld.
"It's an exciting time for the Scottish space sector – an important industry which is playing a vital role in our Plan for Change, helping economic growth and employing thousands of people in good quality jobs across the country," Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said.
"Glasgow, in particular, is a city and region with a huge role to play in the space race, with innovation in this field the focus of its £160 million UK Government-funded investment zone status. This zone, established with local partners, is expected to generate around £300m of initial private investment and support up to 10,000 jobs in the region."
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Scottish Sun
8 minutes ago
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Daily Mirror
8 minutes ago
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Telegraph
8 minutes ago
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'It's quite a shock because with tariffs at that level, it will be hard to serve the US market,' says Roger Wehrli. He is the Bern-based chief executive of Chocosuisse and Biscosuisse, trade bodies representing chocolatiers and confectionery makers. 'Combined with the exchange rate changes, this leads to an increase of costs in certain US markets by around 55pc compared to the beginning of the year,' he says. He warns that Switzerland being singled out leaves it particularly vulnerable. 'The UK has only a tariff of 10pc, the European Union 15pc. So our companies will have a comparative disadvantage. This leads to the conclusion that if this tariff remains, a lot of companies will pull out of the US market,' Wehrli says. The 39pc rate is beyond even the worst-case scenarios companies had planned for, Wehrli says. He also fears the wider damage to the Swiss economy. 'When we look at this economy in general, we export around 15pc to the United States. I'm very much concerned. It will pose severe challenges to the labour market.' Atteslander at trade body Economiesuisse says: 'There are thousands of jobs at risk, but I can't really tell if it is really going to happen or not.' For now, companies like Swatch are temporarily able to rely on all of the stock they rushed into the US in the first half of the year. The watchmaker has enough sitting in US warehouses to last it for at least three to six months, according to its chief executive. Knife maker Victorinox, another Swiss brand, meanwhile, said it was looking to make its operations more efficient through automation and 'collaborative solutions with our distribution partners'. 'This is not the first big challenge these export companies have faced over the last 15 to 20 years,' says Atteslander. If 39pc tariffs do remain in place, companies could explore workarounds. One unlikely benefactor of Trump's trade offensive could be Slovenia, according to Markov, the economist in Geneva. 'Slovenia is a major trading partner and is part of the European Union and the eurozone, so they're subject to 15pc tariffs. Switzerland could, to some extent, bypass the 39pc tariffs by exporting to Slovenia for re-exports to the US.' Swiss pharmaceuticals have already invested billions into production facilities in the small central European nation. Other industries could follow. Ultimately, though, Swiss leaders will be hoping to avoid all that. The federal council – the country's governing cabinet – on Monday said Switzerland was prepared to make a 'more attractive offer' to Trump in an effort to negotiate lower tariffs.
