ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

Rocket engine explodes during test launch from new spaceport in Scotland

Share
LONDON -

A rocket engine exploded during a test launch at a new spaceport in the Shetland Islands off northern Scotland, the rocket manufacturer said Tuesday.

German manufacturer Rocket Factory Augsburg, or RFA, said no one was injured in the incident at SaxaVord Spaceport on the remote island of Unst on Monday evening.

Video of Monday's test launch showed the engine exploding on the launchpad, with the entire structure engulfing in flames and thick smoke.

The spaceport recently received its licences from the Civil Aviation Authority and is designed for small rockets delivering payloads into low earth orbit. It is billed as western Europe's only fully-licensed vertical rocket launch port.

RFA was running tests there ahead of holding the U.K.'s first vertical rocket launch into orbit this autumn.

“The launch pad has been saved and is secured, the situation is under control and any immediate danger has been mitigated," the company said in a statement. It is working with the spaceport and authorities to investigate what led to the explosion, RFA added.

Britain has ambitions to become Europe's leading destination for commercial spaceflight activities. In 2022 a separate site in Cornwall, southwest England, became the first licensed U.K. spaceport, though rockets there are launched horizontally — they are carried by an aircraft to high altitudes before a rocket engine takes over.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.

Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.

B.C.'s police watchdog is investigating the death of a woman who was shot by the RCMP after allegedly barricading herself in a room with a toddler early Thursday morning.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.

A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.