Skyrora Suborbital Rocket Suffers Anomaly In Iceland Launch Attempt

Skyrora’s Skylark L rocket (image courtesy of Skyrora).

Skyrora has experienced a setback in its plans to have its first orbital launch in the United Kingdom next year. The company announced Thursday that its suborbital Skylark L rocket experienced an anomaly during a launch attempt from a site in Langanes, Iceland. The Skylark rocket landed in the Norwegian Sea approximately 500 meters away from the launch site.

Skyrora said no people or wildlife were harmed in any way, and recovery of the vehicle is currently ongoing. Multiple tracking systems as well as boats and airplanes have been employed to optimize the recovery process.

Skylark L is Skyrora’s 11m suborbital rocket, capable of reaching 4x the speed of sound and an altitude of over 125 km. 70% of the technology tested in the Skylark L launch attempt will be applied to the systems of the Skyrora XL vehicle, providing a key incremental learning opportunity to increase technological readiness ahead of vertical orbital launch next year.

“With over three decades in the business, I can assure you that despite the best design, build, and test preparations, anomalies still unfortunately do happen. Skyrora’s launch attempt of Skylark L has provided the team with valuable experience in operations procedures, logistics coordination, and execution of the rapid setup and pack-down of our mobile launch complex, experience which will propel us forward monumentally in our mission to reach orbit,” Lee Rosen, Chief Operations Officer at Skyrora, said in a statement.