The first stage of the company’s RS1 rocket after welding is completed.
ABL Space
Lockheed Martin announced on Monday that it had selected Los Angeles-based rocket builder ABL Space to launch a mission from Scotland in two years.
The companies said they expected the launch, planned for 2022, to be the first in the UK and, more broadly, the first on European soil. However, Virgin Orbit also announced plans to launch an airport mission in Cornwall, England, as early as 2022.
The Lockheed mission comes through a grant from the UK Space Agency’s “Pathfinder Launch” program, with the rocket launching from the island of Unst in the Shetland Islands.
“We want the UK to be the first in Europe to launch small satellites in orbit, attracting innovative companies from around the world, accelerating the development of new technologies and creating hundreds of highly skilled jobs across the UK,” the vice-CEO of the agency, Ian Annett, said in a statement.
Lockheed Martin’s venture capital arm had already invested in ABL Space, which is working on its first California launch in the first half of 2021. ABL builds small rockets, which by size fit among those built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the small launcher Rocket Lab. ABL had brought in nearly $ 100 million in venture capital and contract awards before the UK grant.
The ABL’s RS1 rocket is 88 feet and is designed to send up to 1,350 kg (or almost 1 ½ tonnes) of payload to a low Earth orbit for $ 12 million per launch. ABL’s position in the midst of the commercial launch market puts it in competition with other companies, such as Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit, Relativity Space and Firefly Aerospace.
A second RS1 stage fully integrated in a test shot at Edwards Air Force Base in 2020.
ABL Space
The launch of Scotland’s RS1 will take a spaceship built by Moog, based in the United Kingdom, which will deploy six small satellites, two of which will be technology demonstrations built by Lockheed Martin.
“We selected ABL Space Systems for the launch of Pathfinder in the UK to take advantage of the flexibility of ABL’s integrated GSO launch system – and the RS1 rocket – that will allow us to quickly erect our new location,” said the launch program manager for ABL. Lockheed Martin UK’s Pathfinder, Randy DeRosa made a statement.
“The ABL system is relatively easy, fast and economical to deploy, with fantastic performance, an important resource for many of our future customers,” added DeRosa.
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