SaxaVord is ready. Or at least ready to try. The Shetland spaceport announced a launch window for a test flight, and if the weather plays nice, they’ll fire the rockets.
It starts August 10. Five weeks. That’s it.
Residents don’t need to hold their breath for forty-five days straight. There will be restrictions, yes, but only when they’re actually doing it. You get twenty-four hours’ warning before anything goes up. Not bad, right?
Unst is the northernmost point in the United Kingdom. Several companies want to launch small commercial rockets from here. It makes sense. You want the ocean nearby, not populated cities.
German firm Rocket Factory Augsburg, or RFA, is first up this year.
They will only launch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Between 16:00 and 20:00. Why? To minimise disruption to islanders while keeping the “highest safety standards.” It’s a narrow window. Tight control.
Weather can ruin it. Technical glitches will stop it too. They might call off a launch on short notice.
Remember August 2024? RFA had a test there. A hot-fire. The engine exploded. It damaged the launch platform and wiped the engine out. Completely destroyed.
So they’re being careful. An exclusion zone will stay active for four hours around any attempt. This covers the spaceport itself and the sea north of Unst. Boats will be told to move.
Then there’s the bigger picture. A warning zone stretching all the way to Norway’s Jan Mayen islands. That’s Arctic Ocean. Flights there get rerouted.
Authorities will keep maritime and air users posted. No one wants to fly into a rocket cloud.
Will they make it this time? Probably not the first day. Maybe not even the first week. But they will keep trying until they burn the sky or blow up again.
Who knows.
