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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Jasper Jolly

UK grants licence to send first rocket into space from Shetland Islands

Space rocket launching vertically with engines firing and a cloud of smoke
Rocket Factory Augsburg’s mock-up of what a test flight of RFA One in 2025 from Scotland may look like. Photograph: RFA

The UK has granted permission to send the first rocket into space from the Shetland Islands to a German startup that plans to launch a craft as early as this year.

Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said on Thursday it had awarded the vertical launch licence to Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) to take off from SaxaVord spaceport in the archipelago 50 miles (80km) north of Scotland’s mainland.

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