Scotland

CSignum, a startup for wireless IoT communications from beneath the surface, has completed a £6 million Series A funding round. The Edinburgh company says the investment will accelerate growth of its EM-2 family of products. These use patented electromagnetic field signalling (EMFS) for communicating through challenging sub-surface environments. For example, through water, ice, soil, rock and concrete to networks above ...

Saxavord, the Shetlands spaceport, is highlighting its role for future sovereign space launches. At the SpaceComm expo in London, the spaceport and the German company Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) announced they will be supporting the launch of intelligence monitoring and gathering satellites as well as commercial satellites into orbit. In other words, governmental launches for defence and information gathering. The ...

The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding £10 million for new facilities at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (ATC), the research institute in Edinburgh. Specifically, new lab spaces will be built to assemble optical benches. These are for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, investigating gravitational waves in space. The investment will approximately double UK ATC’s construction capabilities. Optical ...

The UK government has announced £20 million of funding to help to fund the construction and launch of the first orbital rocket both manufactured in the UK and launched from British soil. This is for Orbex and its re-usable Prime rocket, from the Saxavord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands. The company now expects to launch the first Prime rocket “towards ...

We're talking about the low-cost design of ICs, AI infrastructure, weight-conscious projects, and another historic step towards space launches from the Shetlands...

Rocket Factory Augsburg has officially received its spaceflight operator licence from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The SaxaVord Spaceport spaceport – on the Lamba Ness peninsula site in Unst, in the Shetlands – will be hosting the debut launch. A spaceport licence and range control licence are already in place for SaxaVord Spaceport. It means all three critical regulatory ...

In what will be a blow to the rival Scottish spaceport at Southerland, Orbex has decided to switch its launch operations to Shetland, at the SaxaVord Spaceport. Orbex – the UK-based private, low-cost orbital launch services specialist – had previously committed in 2022 to build and operate the Southerland space port, and broke ground on the site in May 2023. ...

The UK has a new regional space cluster: the West of Scotland Space Cluster, the launch of which coincides with the arrival of Space-Comm Expo Scotland at the SEC Glasgow. West of Scotland Space Cluster The organisation – as with other clusters – will comprise local industries, education establishments, and regional development agencies. The region’s capabilities extend, it highlighted, from ...

Scotland is welcoming its biggest ever space industry event next week: the inaugural Space-Comm Expo Scotland, at SEC Glasgow over 11-12 September. The organisers are expecting 3,000 delegates and 70 exhibitors, as well as 100 speakers including representatives from  the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, and Ministers from the UK and Scottish Governments. “There are currently an estimated ...

Scottish Renewables has joined the steering board of SusWind, the wind turbine blade recycling programme started in 2021 by the UK’s National Composites Centre (NCC) and the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult. On the steering board, “Scottish Renewables joins The Crown Estate, Crown Estate Scotland, BVG Associates, RenewableUK, ZeroWaste Scotland, Net Zero Technology Centre and Vestas”, said NCC. “Collectively, they ...