Scottish rocket successfully passes 'hot fire' test

A Scottish space company say they are celebrating after a successful test of their rocket.

Skyrora say they carried out a 45-second "hot fire" test, using a smaller version of its XL rocket, at a special site on the west coast of Scotland.

They say the test will help them improve their rockets in the future, with an aim to launch satellites into space

Find out more here.

A hot fire test is a way for engineers to test an engine before a proper rocket launch.

The engine is bolted to the ground, which stops it from flying off.

It is then ignited - which means the engine's fuel is lit. Engineers can then watch to see how the engine performs.

This test was a scaled down version of the rocket with one engine, whereas the real thing will have nine engines.

This isn't the first time that Skyrora has tested its rocket systems.

Skyrora successfully launched its Skylark Nano in 2018 in the Scottish Highlands.

And in October 2022, the company tried to launch its Skylark L rocket from Iceland.

The launch failed, and ended with the rocket falling into the sea just after lift-off; they say this was because of a software problem.

This is a marker of success of this kind of technology, could also mean there are more space related job that could open in the UK in the future.

Skyrora is aiming to use its rockets to launch satellites the size of a shoebox into space, that can be used for weather forecasting and maps.

Satellite is a name for any object that travels around a planet or a star.

It can be naturally occurring, like space rock and debris, or it can be human-made.

For example, the International Space Station is a type of satellite as it orbits (travels around) the Earth.

Human-made satellites can be used to transmit information all across the world. They are behind the technology we rely on every day, like phones, TV and the internet.

Engineering Lead at Skyrora, Michael Duncan told Newsround that the successful test is "very exciting" news, as the rocket did exactly what they wanted it to do.

He said: "Every rocket that's ever gone to space started with a test like this and this is the start of Scotland's journey to having rockets like this for many years to come.

"Britain used to build its own rockets more than 50 years ago and then it stopped. The reason it's coming back up for us is that we're learning how to do it again.

"Scotland already builds quite a lot of satellites and the UK is quite good at space technology, so things like telecoms and weather satellites, but we need to focus more on rocket technology and getting things like this into space," he added.

Skyrora isn't the only company in Scotland aiming for space either.

Earlier this year the government described how the country is set to become Europe's launchpad.

It says that Scotland already building more satellites than anywhere else in Europe, and has been backed by £30 million from the new UK Space Strategy,

SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland is also set to become one of Europe's largest orbital launch facilities.