Space company handed environmental award

A Scottish space flight company has picked up an environmental award during a visit to Iceland, where it also launched a rocket to an altitude of more than 16 miles and met the country’s president.

Edinburghhead quartered Skyrora received Iceland’s Leif Erikson Lunar Prize for its environmental efforts, and, in particular, its Ecosene project to convert unrecyclable plastic waste into a usable high-grade aviation fuel.

Skyrora plans to use Ecosene – replacing kerosene – on its larger launch vehicles, Skylark L and Skyrora XL, with the first Skylark L sub-orbital launch expected to take place next year.

The company claims that when Ecosene becomes commercially available it could use 400,000 tonnes, of unrecyclable plastic waste a year.

At the same time, it would stop Skyrora from using limited kerosene resources, and minimise the company’s own carbon footprint and that of the aviation industry.

Chief executive Volodymyr Levykin said: “I’m delighted that in addition to our successful rocket launch, Skyrora also received the prestigious Leif Erikson Lunar Prize award in Iceland – the world’s second most highly performing country in environmental issues.

“Global climate change is extremely important for everybody at Skyrora, and we see it as our mission and duty to be as environmentally conscious as possible.

“Receiving the Leif Erikson award during our seven-day trip to Iceland goes to show how much potential Ecosene has, not only for the company but for the future of the global space industry.”

The Leif Erikson Awards, sometimes also referred to as the Exploration Awards, are presented annually by the Exploration Museum.

Leif Erikson was an Icelander thought to be the first known European to have set foot on continental North America, about half a millennium before Christopher Columbus.

During Skyrora’s preparations for launching its Skylark rocket, Mr Levykin, along with managers Derek Harris and Katie Miller also met the president of Iceland, Guoni Johannesson, as well as the minister of education and culture, and the minister of environment.

At the meeting they discussed the company, the Skylark “micro mission” and Skyrora’s current and future plans in Iceland.

Skyrora recently carried out a successful test launch in Shetland, with its Skylark Nano rocket blasting off from the Fethaland Peninsula at North Roe.

The firm has also carried out two launches from Kildermorie Estate, near Alness.

Skyrora chief executive Volodymyr Levykin, left, with the Icelandic president