Rocket Engine Explodes During Test at Shetland Spaceport

The test was spectacular, but not in the way those involved had hoped.

A rocket engine firing at a planned spaceport on a remote Scottish island ended in a tower of fire on Monday, with an explosion that engulfed the launch platform in flames.

The site, a former radar station on Unst, in the north of the Shetland Islands, is intended to become a base for launching small satellites. That ambition reflects a wider push in Western Europe to develop more independent space capabilities after relations with Russia broke down over the war in Ukraine, freezing European access to Russian Soyuz rockets.

But this time at least, the result was a fiery display of the trial and error that characterizes the space business.

The rocket manufacturers involved, the German company Rocket Factory Augsburg, said that an “anomaly” had occurred, and that no one was injured.

“We will take our time to analyze and assess the situation,” the company said in a statement.

“This was a test, and test campaigns are designed to identify issues prior to the next stage,” SaxaVord, the spaceport, said in a statement.

Rocket Factory Augsburg is SaxaVord’s first client, with others including HyImpulse, a German company that specializes in launching small satellites, and a subsidiary of the U.S. aeronautics firm Lockheed Martin.

Setbacks like these were anticipated, Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said on Tuesday, adding that it was in contact with the companies involved to ensure safety standards. The aviation authority granted SaxaVord a spaceport license last year.

“Advancing space technology is complex and at the cutting edge of aerospace and tests like the one at SaxaVord are essential to achieve future success,” the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

SaxaVord and Rocket Factory Augsburg had planned “extensively for this potential outcome,” the U.K. Space Agency said, and tests like these will become more common as the country develops its satellite launching capabilities. Britain’s space industry was worth an estimated 17.5 billion pounds (nearly $23 billion) in 2021, according to a report published last month by Britain’s National Audit Office.

“The benefits that space brings — to our society, economy and communities across the country — are more than worth it,” the agency said in a statement.

Rocket Factory Augsburg is part of the European Space Agency’s Boost program, an initiative aimed at developing the region’s commercial space capabilities. This test, and its failures, were part of the development process, the agency said in an email.

“It is in Europe’s best interest to have a competitive space transportation industry, with multiple options of launch vehicles at its disposal,” said Thilo Kranz, manager of the agency’s Commercial Space Transportation Program.

Rocket Factory Augsburg’s shareholders said the explosion did not worry them. The company’s approach to testing had prepared its backers, said OHB, a German aeronautics company and one of the factory’s main shareholders.