There's sad news from the UK this morning, and it doesn't even involve Brexit. (Actually, it does, sort of.) Bloodhound SSC , the land speed record car that's been designed to break the 1,000mph limit, has entered administration (a process similar to bankruptcy in the US). This isn't the final outcome for the project, but Bloodhound SSC does need to raise about $33 million (£25 million) in order to see things through to completion. And as if fate were not cruel enough, the announcement comes 21 years and a day after the last successful land speed record attempt , one that involved many of the same people.

Setting a new land speed record is no easy task. First, you have to build a wheeled vehicle capable of the speed required. In this case it's a single-seat machine, powered by a one-two combo of jet engine (a Rolls-Royce EJ200) and rocket (a hybrid solid fuel/liquid oxidizer design from Nammo).

But even once you have your vehicle working, you need somewhere suitable to run it. A successful land speed record requires timed runs over a one-mile distance, run in both directions within one hour, so even a really long runway is only good if you want to test the first 20 percent of the speed range.

Once you add the required distance needed to build up speed and then slow down afterward, that means a smooth, flat site at least 12 miles long and three miles wide. The previous record was set at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, but that has been ruined by techbros living out post-apocalyptic fantasies at Burning Man. After considering and rejecting a number of even more remote sites, Bloodhound SSC picked a site in South Africa's Northern Cape province called the Hakskeen Pan. Nature doesn't just leave perfect land speed sites lying around, so Bloodhound SSC has been working with the local government there to prepare a track.

But as any student of land speed record attempts knows, finding the money is the hardest part. A little over two years ago, the project got a cash infusion thanks to a deal with Geely . But that was evidently not enough, and the uncertainty over the impending disintegration of the British economy thanks to Brexit has meant other corporate backers have been thin on the ground.

Hopefully the administrators will find a backer to take the car to South Africa, in which case we may very well see it break 1,000mph. Should the worst happen, we can at least be content to know that the STEM engagement aspect of the project has been highly successful.

"Whilst not an insignificant amount, the £25m Bloodhound requires to break the land speed record is a fraction of the cost of, for example, finishing last in a F1 season or running an Americas Cup team. This is an opportunity for the right investor to leave a lasting legacy. We are already in discussion with a number of potential investors and would encourage any other interested party to contact us without delay," said Andrew Sheridan, one of the administrators, in a press statement.