Gravitilab in Norfolk ceases trading amid investor issues

A director of Gravitilab Aerospace Services, based at Scottow Enterprise Park, confirmed that 19 members of staff were made redundant in December 2023, and that the firm had been forced to halt operations

They said the company's cash reserves had been diminished after investors failed to meet agreed payment deadlines.

One former employee, who had his contract terminated prior to the redundancies, claimed that staff were not paid for the entire month of November, despite working full-time hours. 

A spokesman for the company said that directors had stopped receiving a salary in the four months leading up to the redundancies, and loaned money to the company to ensure sure staff could be paid in October.

They added that Gravitilab was "continuing to pursue investment" to back-pay staff, and that they anticipated "returning to a growth phase in the next year".

MPs Duncan Baker (left) and Jerome Mayhew have supported Gravitilab's work developing space rockets (Image: Newsquest)

The company, which has been creating and developing rockets from its Norfolk base since 2018, has received hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money to support its work.

In December 2022 Norfolk County Council gave the firm £40,000, with the UK Space Agency - which is publicly funded - handing over £400,000 weeks later. 

The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) also invested £25,000 in the business in 2021 through its Growth Through Innovation Fund.

Funding had been earmarked for various projects, including a proposed offshore 'space port' off the Norfolk coast, which it said would help facilitate rocket launches. 

The firm had been in the process of gaining licensing for airspace from the Civil Aviation Authority when it made the redundancies.