SaxaVord scraps shared launch rail plan, HyImpulse to supply its own
SaxaVord Spaceport · HyImpulse
SaxaVord scrapped its shared suborbital launch rail; HyImpulse will bring its own for its second SR75 flight, per European Spaceflight.
what happened
SaxaVord Spaceport confirmed to European Spaceflight that it abandoned Project SkyReach, a shared suborbital launch rail the UK Space Agency funded with a £378,000 grant in December 2022; a SaxaVord spokesperson said less than £10,000 was drawn down for design work before the project stopped. HyImpulse will instead bring its own launch rail, developed and funded through the UK Space Agency's Sustainable Hybrid: Accelerated Rocket Programme (SHARP), which awarded HyImpulse just shy of £5 million in July 2024 as part of a broader £33 million National Space Innovation Programme package covering both the rail's development and a SR75 flight from SaxaVord. The rail will be installed at SaxaVord's Launch Pad 3 for HyImpulse's second SR75 suborbital flight, expected in a launch window between October 5 and 18, per maritime and aviation notices cited by European Spaceflight.
why it matters
The reversal shows a UK-funded shared-infrastructure project failing to materialize, leaving individual launch customers to fund and build their own ground equipment at SaxaVord, a cost and schedule risk other tenants at the spaceport will now have to plan around rather than rely on shared facilities.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- SaxaVord Spaceport, HyImpulse
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- noise
- SNR
- 3 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-22
- Published
- 2026-09-22 17:28 UTC