Branson rocket failure made Britain look bad – but we will change that, says Science Secretary
When Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit rocket failed on its maiden launch from Cornwall in 2023, it brought Britain's space aspirations crashing down to Earth.
Now, Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, is determined that the UK will shake off its image of a 'plucky' yet unsuccessful nation to become a dominant force in the space industry.
He personally intervened to ensure that SaxaVord Spaceport on Shetland will get government support to embark on the first vertical satellite launches this year.
And he has not ruled out human space flight from this side of the Atlantic.
'I'm certainly not going to put a cap on anything Britain can achieve, because I think we have the ability to do things that most people don't believe is possible right now,' he told The Telegraph.
'And I think it's about time Britain just lifted its head up to the horizon and thought a bit more ambitiously about what we can achieve as a country.'
Speaking of the unsuccessful Cornwall launch, he added: 'I watched it live, and the worst thing about that is you think, 'That's what we do, we're plucky, we try, but we never get there'.
'SaxaVord feels different, because the Arctic orbit is unique, it's not something you can get from mainland America, so if we do this we can have a realistic opportunity for us to find our feet in a fast-growing market.
'If we can have those successful launches from SaxaVord, I think Britain would sit back and watch the TV screens like I did as a child at school when we all gathered around the television to watch the Space Shuttle launch. It would be just a lovely moment for our country. '
Mr Kyle was speaking during a visit to the Airbus factory in Stevenage, which has just won a European Space Agency (Esa) contract to build the lander for the ExoMars mission, that will land the first European rover on Mars to look for life.
The original lander was designed by Russia, but Esa severed ties with Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, at the start of the Ukraine war, leaving it without a way to get its rover to the Martian surface.
The Hertfordshire factory also built the rover – dubbed Rosalind Franklin after the British chemist who pioneered the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA – so already had an intimate knowledge of the cargo and an extra interest in getting it down in one piece.
The £150 million contract is a major boost to Britain's space interests.
Mr Kyle added: 'It is important for Britain and our prestige as a country that we have something that is going to be so globally significant coming out of Stevenage and then right the way to Mars.
'We're going to get so much information that it's going to seep its way through the scientific community.
'It might end up in medical technology, it might end up in an understanding of humanity and life itself. And it might answer some of the big existential questions that we often strive for.
'I'm sure they're not going to find a skeleton there. But even if its microbial life, that proves there is life elsewhere in the universe and I'm just excited for whatever comes back.'
As well as being built in Britain, the rover is also carrying a suite of instruments from British universities including University College London (UCL), Aberystwyth, Birkbeck College and Leicester.
The rover's high mast is fitted with a special camera that scans the Martian surface looking for minerals that may prove there was once liquid water that could have hosted extraterrestrial organisms.
Once a watery location is discovered, the rover will trundle to the spot at a speed of around 47 inches an hour, before drilling six-and-a-half feet down into the ground to take samples.
The Martian rocks are then fed through an aperture on the rover into a mobile laboratory – the first ever on a rover – where they are crushed up and examined for organic matter. Confirmation of life could come within just weeks or months of the rover landing.
But getting the rover to the surface is not easy. Fewer than half the soft landings on Mars have been successful, and Britain suffered a notable failure when Beagle 2 vanished after touching down in 2003.
Caroline Rodier, who is leading the lander programme at Airbus, said: 'It's quite a challenge. The outer shell will provide quite a lot of deceleration, then there are two parachutes, one sonic and one subsonic, and after that a big thruster engine for the final few minutes.
'Once the lander arrives, then the rover has a few days to effectively unfold, sort of like Wall-E in the cartoon and start deployment.
'There is clearly strong hope that we're going to discover new things. It would be mind-blowing to find life on another planet and we could quite quickly know much more about Mars. It is exciting.'
Mr Kyle said he had sometimes found it a struggle to make the case for space, particularly after a National Audit Office report warned last year that Britain was not getting value for money on its investment in Esa – a situation that has since improved.
The SaxaVord spaceport has continually complained that help from the previous government was lukewarm and they had to, largely, go it alone.
Mr Kyle said he also had the option to give up on the spaceport.
'Those who put to me arguments that the money could be used better elsewhere, the thought that I kept coming back to is the knowledge that if I turn this off, it's not coming back again,' he said.
'So did I want to be the person that just turned hope off? I didn't, so I also met all of the characters involved, and their passion is enthusiastic, it is contagious and but it is underpinned by scientific rigour.
'It feels so British, with a sort of 'can do' Heath Robinson attitude but built on proper foundations, so it has the best of all, all of our scientific characteristics.'
SaxaVord has attempted one static-fire test of a RFA (Rocket Factory Augsburg) rocket last year but it ended in a dramatic explosion.
But the company says it is back on track for launches this year and is racing against Norway to be the first vertical launch from Europe.
The ExoMars mission is due to launch in 2028 with the support of Nasa and land on Mars in 2030.
Kata Escott, managing director of Airbus Defence and Space UK, said: 'Getting the Rosalind Franklin rover on to the surface of Mars is a huge international challenge and the culmination of more than 20 years' work.
'Rosalind Franklin will be the first Martian rover able to analyse samples from two metres below the surface in its search for past or present life.'
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The confidential brief, along with AP reporting, shows that a network of social media channels, likely administrated by current or former Wagner members, has reposted content that the channels say are from Wagner fighters, promoting videos and photos appearing to show abuses by armed, uniformed men, often accompanied by mocking or dehumanizing language. While administrators of the channels are anonymous, open source analysts believe they are current or former Wagner fighters based on the content as well as graphics used, including in some cases Wagner's logo. AP analysis of the videos confirms the body parts shown are genuine, as well as the military uniforms. The videos and photos, in a mix of French and local languages, aim to humiliate and threaten those considered the enemies of Wagner and its local military allies, along with civilian populations whose youth face pressure to join extremist groups. But experts say it often has the opposite effect, prompting reprisal attacks and recruitment into the ranks of jihadis. If the videos aim to deter and terrorize, it's working, some in Mali say. The ones appearing to show atrocities committed by Malian soldiers 'caused a psychological shock in the Fulani community,' a representative of the nomadic community's civil society told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The Fulani are often caught in the middle of the fight against extremism, the focus of violence from both government forces and extremists, and of jihadi recruitment. Thousands of Fulani have fled to neighboring countries in fear of being victimized, the representative said, and asserted that at least 1,000 others disappeared last year after encountering Mali's army or allied militias, including Wagner. Condemnation and investigations In July last year, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel reposted three videos of what appeared to be Mali's armed forces and the Dozo hunters, a local defense group often fighting alongside them, committing apparent abuses that allude to cannibalism. One video shows a man in the uniform of Mali's armed forces cooking what he says are body parts. Another shows a man dressed as a Dozo hunter cutting into a human body, saying he is about to eat the liver. In a third video, a group of Dozo fighters roasts what appears to be a human torso. One man carves off a hunk of flesh and tosses it to another. Mali's army ordered an investigation into the viral videos, which were removed from X for violating the platform's rules and put behind a paywall on Telegram. The army chief described it as 'rare atrocity' which was not aligned with the nation's military values, and 'competent services' would confirm and identify the perpetrators. It was not clear whether anyone was identified. A video apparently from Burkina Faso, shared on X the same month, showed an armed man in military pants and sleeveless shirt dancing, holding a severed hand and foot, at one point grinning as the foot dangled from his teeth. In another, a man in Burkinabe military uniform cuts through what appears to be a human body. He says: 'Good meat indeed. We are Cobra 2.' Another man is heard saying: 'This is BIR 15. BIR 15 always does well its job, by all means. Fatherland or death, we shall win.' BIR 15 Cobra 2 is the name of a special intervention unit created by Burkina Faso's ruler, Ibrahim Traore, to combat extremists. 'Fatherland or death' is the motto of pro-government forces. The videos were removed from X and put behind a paywall on Telegram. Burkina Faso's army condemned the videos' 'macabre acts' and described them as 'unbearable images of rare cruelty.' The army said it was working to identify those responsible, adding that it 'distances itself from these inhumane practices.' It was not clear whether anyone has been identified. Other posts shared by alleged Wagner-affiliated channels include images of what appear to be mutilated corpses and beheaded, castrated and dismembered bodies of people, including ones described as extremist fighters, often accompanied with mocking commentary. One post shows two white men in military attire with what appears to be a human roasting on a spit, with the caption: 'The meat you hunt always tastes better,' along with an emoji of a Russian flag. It is hard to know at what scale cannibalism might occur in the context of warfare in the Sahel, and actual cases are 'likely rare,' said Danny Hoffman, chair in international studies at the University of Washington. But "the real force of these stories comes from the fascination and fear they create,' Hoffman said of the videos, with the digital age making rumors of violence even more widespread and effective. 'Whether it is Wagner or local fighters or political leaders, being associated with cannibalism or ritual killings or mutilations is being associated with an extreme form of power," he said. Some of the graphic posts have been removed. Other content was moved behind a paywall. Telegram told the AP in a statement: 'Content that encourages violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI and machine learning tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day.' It did not say whether it acts on material behind a paywall. 'White Uncles in Africa' The Telegram channel White Uncles in Africa has emerged as the leading source of graphic imagery and dehumanizing language from the Sahel, reposting all the Mali videos. UC Berkeley experts and open source analysts believe it is administered by current or former Wagner members, but they have not been able to identify them. While the channel re-posts images from subscribers, it also posts original content. In May of this year, the channel posted a photo of eight bodies of what appeared to be civilians, face-down on the ground with hands bound, with the caption: 'The white uncles found and neutralized a breeding ground for a hostile life form.' It also shared an image of a person appearing to be tortured, with the caption describing him as a 'hostile life form' being taken 'for research.' Human Rights Watch has documented atrocities committed in Mali by Wagner and other armed groups. It says accountability for alleged abuses has been minimal, with the military government reluctant to investigate its armed forces and Russian mercenaries. It has become difficult to obtain detailed information on alleged abuses because of the Malian government's 'relentless assault against the political opposition, civil society groups, the media and peaceful dissent,' said Ilaria Allegrozzi, the group's Sahel researcher. That has worsened after a U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in December 2023 at the government's request.
