First fire! 🔥 We have successfully kicked off the hot fire campaign for our first stage at @SaxaVord_Space. We hot-fired a total of four Helix engines, igniting one by one at four second intervals. All engines ran simultaneously for 8 seconds with a total hot-fire duration of 20 seconds. The test ran flawlessly through start-up, steady-state and shutdown. With this hot fire, we were able to demonstrate that we can nominally operate and control our first stage and all its systems, as well as a cluster of Helix engines. RFA and our incredible team are marching steadfastly on towards our first test flight, not only in Scotland but also in Augsburg, Portugal and Sweden. Special thanks to our partners at @SaxaVord_Space for their support at all levels.

Watch the video on YouTube as well!

Together with other innovative European new space companies, we approached @esa in the run-up for the anticipated European Launcher Challenge. In our joint position paper, we set out our shared vision, expectations, and ideas 🚀 Read it here ⬇️

@dpoddolphinpro @UK_CAA Thanks, Ryan! It was indeed a crazy week for space flight! It's amazing what all came together and its great to be part of it.

📢 RFA received its launch licence!! We are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded our Spaceflight Operator Licence by the @UK_CAA! This historic licence makes us the first European company to receive regulatory approval for orbital rocket launches from mainland Europe 🤯 The licence is not limited in time and covers a wide range of orbits and trajectories. All three key regulatory authorisations required for an RFA ONE test flight in 2025 from @SaxaVordSpaceport have now been granted 🚀 What a vote of confidence from @UK_CAA and @spacegovuk, thank you! Read more in our press release ➡️

After this already exciting morning, we also have great news at the top of the hour. Keep an eye on our accounts! 😎 Or play it safe and turn on notifications 🔔

First attempt and straight into orbit - congratulations to the whole team @blueorigin! The blue flames and mach diamonds were a delight to watch 💎 Looking forward to the next launches! #TeamSpace

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All right, we'll just make a start before everyone goes into the new year at different times and is (hopefully) busy with themselves and their loved ones anyway: The whole team at RFA wishes you, our customers, investors, partners, suppliers, political and institutional supporters, as well as the entire space industry and its community a Happy New Year. We know that behind all these collective terms, many people are working hard and tirelessly every day to drive Europe's space sector forward. Without you, RFA would not be where we are today. For this and for your passion, we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. See you in 2025, the year of our first test flight!

#RFAdvent Day 24 Merry Christmas from our teams in Germany, Sweden, Scotland and Portugal! 🎄🎁 RFA wishes you and your loved ones a wonderful festive season. Enjoy this time full of joy and thoughtfulness! We look back on an eventful year full of unique moments, including the graffiti signatures on the (pragmatic & low-cost) wooden crate in which our S1002 was transported to our launch pad in Scotland. We look forward to continuing our journey with you, stay tuned to reach the stars with us in 2025💫

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 23 This year in July, RFA successfully passed the qualification test for its third stage Redshift OTV at the test stand near Augsburg 🔥 It included a nearly 600s (10 minutes!) burn after an assumed stage separation, followed by a 40 minute coasting phase simulation, and a 30s orbit circularization burn 🌐 The star of the show was our in-house developed Fenix engine with green fuel, which is non-toxic, storable, has a good specific impulse, and is easily accessible. Fenix can be ignited a number of times, allowing Redshift to fly to different orbits to deploy customers flexibly and precisely. Watch the full behind-the-scenes video of our Redshift OTV qualification here:

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 22 Last year, we were super thankful for hosting one of the biggest influencers in the space industry: Tim Dodd, the @Erdayastronaut visited us for a day in our HQ in Germany. We gave him a very unique look behind the scenes of a European launch service provider - from a tour of our workshop to our test site near Augsburg. If you haven't seen him interviewing our co-founder Stefan Brieschenk inside the tank of a first stage, watch his video now:

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 21 Remember the giant Kinder egg – the rocket's fairing? Inside you will find the payloads, which are treated with care like Christmas presents. Speaking of payloads: the photo shows Cirium 5 from our customer @PTS_space during our first joint activities in Scotland. Also flying with us on our TestFlight1 are our customers @DCUBEDspace and @amsatdl. Santa has his sledge to fit all the presents in – we have our #Redshift OTV to transport multiple satellites at the same time into orbit!

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 20 Last (but not last) stage standing. For several months, our ~20m high first stage was the distinguishing feature at the @SaxaVord_Space , defying the wind, rain and salt water. Especially at night it looks quite mystic, although it seems that someone was still working below it in the launch stool. S1002 was the first of many stages that will stand on this launch stool. 📸 RFA/Marc Haßenpflug

@gontarre @otherwayup @SSCspace Hm, strange. @elonmusk? But there is an easy workaround: turn on notifications and you will not miss anything in the future 😎

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 18 That’s no giant Kinder egg, we told the children from a kindergarten who visited us at RFA Portugal – it’s the RFA ONE fairing, prepped and ready for shipping! The fairing acts as the rocket’s protective shell, carefully surrounding the payload to shield it from the harsh conditions during ascent, like aerodynamic forces and intense heat. Curious about what’s inside?!

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 17 🔥 Today we would like to honor our team who managed to achieve two incredible multi-engine hotfires with our first stage this year. What an achievement! Once again captured with an analogue camera 📸 RFA/Marc Haßenpflug Rewatch the video on our first multiple-engine S1 hot fire here:

🚀 #RFAdvent Day 16 Our cleanroom at @SaxaVord_Space was very busy in August. Not only did we have customers (with their payloads) on site for joint activities, but we also carried out final preparations on Redshift OTV, pictured here on the right. Redshift is our third stage and can launch several customers into different orbits with its re-ignitable Fenix engine. It is therefore the flexible service element of our RFA ONE launch system 🚕 In the future, we also plan to offer in-orbit services, including the removal of space debris 🗑️