How the UK got back into the global space race

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A record 2664 objects were launched into space in 2023 – over five times more than in 2018.

The space launch business is dominated by US firm SpaceX, but as global demand for satellites continues to grow, other countries are keen to get in on the act.

At New Scientist’s Emerging Technologies Summit in May, Derek Harris at Edinburgh-based Skyrora highlighted how the UK can make its own contribution to the space race. Founded in 2017, Skyrora, which builds launch vehicles for small satellites, is trying out new technologies, including rocket fuel made from unrecyclable plastics.

The reason Skyrora is able to exist is because of the UK government’s ambition to enter the space race, Harris explained. “Seven years ago, there was a decision made that a spaceport would be built in the United Kingdom,” he said. For anyone wanting to launch satellites into space, there were few options. “The main reason we came around was, unless you really wanted to use SpaceX or Arianespace [a French company that launches satellites from French Guiana], there was nothing there,” he said. “In Europe, there was just nothing there to help the backlog of satellites.”

Making your mark on the market

That absence of launch companies was keenly felt, said Harris, because the UK did once have a stake in the space race. “Back in 1971, we had a launch programme with Black Arrow [rockets],” he said. “We were the only nation to give up our launch capability.” It prompted frustration for those working at Skyrora because of the effort it takes to start up a space rocket company. “To put all that in a bin and set it on fire is just unbelievable,” said Harris.

Yet the UK’s absence from the space race was a blessing as well as a curse. It allowed upstream manufacturers, who build the hardware used by companies like Skyrora, time to develop so that they could step in when plans were resuscitated in the 2010s – and enabled Skyrora to pursue a unique approach, putting sustainability first.

“We went to a couple of colleagues and said, ‘We want a cleaner fuel than what we're burning,’” said Harris. “What we found is a way to take previously unrecyclable plastics – your polystyrene and some of your low-density polyethylene – and it can go through a three-stage process.”

Astronomically cleaner fuel

Skyrora’s innovative process transforms waste plastics into usable rocket fuel. “For every 1 tonne of plastics that go in, we get 650 kilos of usable fuels back out,” said Harris. The environmental benefits are significant: “The big thing that we have found, and I think this is amazing, is that there's a 13 times reduction on the sulphur and nitrates [emitted when the fuel is burned].”

But Skyrora isn’t only trying to innovate in how it fuels its rockets. The company is using 3D-printing technology to manufacture rocket engines, too. Specifically, it is using a technique called directed energy deposition, which uses a laser to fuse layers of material as they are being deposited. This allows for the creation of highly complex structures, optimising engine design and performance.

The 3D printer has multiple heads, meaning the objects it prints don’t need to be taken off and repositioned throughout the process. This makes it quicker to build the parts that will help propel satellites into space.

Up, up and away

Harris explained how Skyrora has managed to be among the first UK private enterprises to put items into space. The company has launched seven smaller suborbital vehicles, meaning ones that go up into space and come down in a single arc, reaching a peak altitude of between 5 and 500 kilometres. Suborbital launch vehicles are commonly used for aerospace technology testing and demonstration.

The largest vehicle Skyrora has launched was the 11.65-metre-high Skylark L, which reached a peak altitude of 102 km, re-entering the atmosphere 20 km above sea level. But Skylark L didn’t take off from a UK spaceport, regretfully. “That had to go from Iceland,” explained Harris. “We couldn’t get regulated in the UK.”

That was in 2022 – and things have moved on since then. “The exciting news now is we are expecting our licence this year,” he said. “If we can get that, we have a Skylark L ready to go from the Shetland Isles.” The countdown is on for the UK to launch itself back into the space race.