But the mystery was laid to rest when James Kilpatrick commented on the post, telling people his farm nearby was being used as a test site for rockets for Norfolk based company Raptor Aerospace, which specialises in the design and development of suborbital rockets.
Raptor, which is based at the Scottow Enterprise Park, near the old Coltishall airbase, used the farm as it is close by.
They are designed to enter space and return to earth whilst conducting research and tests for a range of industries. They simulate the experience of space flight, so people can test the effects it would have on their material.
Campbeltown Courier
A Raptor Aerospace Kestrel-100LD rocket was successfully launched at MACC last year.
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“Poyekhali!” Dressed in an oversized orange spacesuit and equally large white helmet, the initials CCCP stamped in red across the front, an unknown Russian air force pilot prepared to make history. It was the morning of 12 April 12, 1961, and moments earlier Yuri Gagarin had said his farewells to the gathered dignitaries and made the brief bus journey across the tarmac. Ahead of him, rising from the flat landscape of the Kazakhstan steppes, was a towering, shining rocket. Gagarin had only learned that he had been selected to become the first human being to orbit the earth three days earlier – even his wife and young family did not know what lay ahead.
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Raptor Aerospace was established in 2018 to provide microgravity and short duration space testing solutions that put the customer first; placing convenience, proximity and reduced cost at the heart of what we do. For the first time, researchers and commercial organisations can de-risk subsystems and advance Technology Readiness Levels on their terms. The company recently moved to a new manufacturing facility located at Scottow Enterprise Park in Norfolk, formerly RAF Coltishall. The engineering company based in rural Norfolk is currently building a new generation of rockets intended to fuel a revolution in low-cost access to space. The focus from Raptor Aerospace is on reforming the suborbital spaceflight market by providing short-duration access to space environments. This kind of space access has traditionally been used by scientific researchers in order to collect data and carry out experiments in space. Raptor plan to enable a new responsive, local and cost-effective approa