Net Work March 2025

This month’s Net Work is the penultimate article in the long-running series, and brings a round-up of the latest space programme developments, starting with a look at some home-grown projects that are slowly taking shape in Britain and around the world.

^ SaxaVord Spaceport is developing a ground station network on the island of Unst, Shetland, the UK’s most northerly location.

As Europe seeks to build up its own independent capacity for launching LEO satellites, Scotland is in pole position to host some of Britain’s own space port ambitions. Back in the May 2022 issue I reported that the UK Government was investing in SaxaVord, a new spaceport to be built in Unst, the most northernmost location in the Shetland Islands off the Scottish coast.

This month’s column reports on progress at SaxaVord, and there’s a setback at a second launch site, Sutherland Spaceport, which aimed to become ‘Scotland’s Sustainable Spaceport’ in the Scottish Highlands.

It’s an area steeped in the traditions of crofting (a unique historical system of land tenure and small-holding farming). Hopes were high that a space hub could attract new sustainable jobs. Readers can gauge the crofting lifestyle for themselves at https://www.melness.scot/news.  Sadly, Orbex, one of the spaceport’s main backers, has decided to divert its attention to focus on launching from SaxaVord instead. An item on Construction News explains more background here.

Skyrora (https://skyrora.com) is a rival currently designing its own satellite space launch vehicles, including complex 3D-printed assemblies, ready to meet the needs of its LEO satellite clients. They forecast flights commencing at the end of 2026.

Jostling for space

Vying for business is Sweden’s Esrange Spaceport, which is home to a thriving and long-established programme of scientific and research initiatives. Esrange is the European Union’s first site capable of offering orbital launches. You can learn more at https://sscspace.com/esrange/

In this month’s column there’s an update on other space programs including Starliner, NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter, the Mars Sample Return mission and NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in August 2018. It was the first spacecraft to pass through the sun’s corona and in December 2024 set another record for passing the closest to the Sun’s surface at nearly half a million miles per hour, faster than any man-made object has ever travelled.

The ESA’s much delayed Ariane 6 heavy lifter (image, right) is scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2025. SpaceX is also pressing on with developing Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket that is ultimately destined for building a space camp on Mars. The re-usable rocket is powered by 33 Raptor engines and has previously taken off and landed again on the same launchpad.

^ A Starship super heavy booster with 33 Raptor engines is captured by ‘chopsticks’ after returning to Earth. (YouTube: SpaceX)

> The ESA Ariane 6 heavy lifter is set to launch from French Guiana early this year. It has two booster configurations depending on the payload. (Image: ©ESA ArianeGroup)

In a truly astonishing achievement, the returning booster vehicle, initially returning to Earth at 2,000 mph+, was safely captured and held aloft by ‘chopsticks’ on the launch tower. The video must be seen to be believed, and is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b28zbsnk-48). After five data-gathering test missions, expect to see several inaugural flights of Starship this year.

eBay Buyers sellers beware

Ebay has been busy re-inventing itself, and in January 2025 announced a new fee structure. Never before have buyers been forced to pay a fee on top, but eBay has now introduced a so-called “Buyer Protection” scheme in a move that is straight out of Vinted’s playbook.

It increases buyers’ costs by adding an enigmatic 4% ‘Buyer Protection Fee’ plus £0.75 when they purchase from private sellers. As a supposed added-value benefit, a 24×7 phone or chat service is introduced by eBay “to get the quick answers you [buyers] need”. As the ‘Buyer Protection Fee’ will automatically be included in the item price charged by private sellers, “there are no surprises at checkout”, eBay says, so “[buyers] only pay what you see”, which is jolly reassuring to know.

Far more relevant to private sellers, though, is the fact that they will no longer be paid until the goods have been delivered successfully. This is supposed to ‘give buyers more confidence’, which they are supposed to be thankful for. The onus is also now on the seller to provide tracking, and deal with the consequences of deliveries going astray.

Ebay’s actions are likely to have a chilling effect on small private sale items, which had only recently become free to list, itself a welcome move at the time. A £2.00 item will now sell at £2.83, a 41% price increase for buyers, and something that cost £5.00 will now cost £5.95 (+16%) from February, as one disgruntled seller pointed out, making it much less viable to sell small items as costs are pushed onto buyers.

Should things go wrong, it’s worth remembering that buying through PayPal and Google Pay, instead of directly with your credit card, removes the Section 75 UK consumer protection law for items costing between £100.00 – £30,000. Instead, you’re left to complain and deal with corporates like PayPal or eBay.

More details of the above – and more! – will be found in the magazine as usual.

Next month: change is in the air, as the former Editor once put it, as the April 2025 issue will sadly mark the last regular Net Work column after an uninterrupted run of nearly 29 years. So join me then for more news, and more Net Work!

• The author can be reached at alan@epemag.net