Lmst

#Orbex

#Orbex Delays First #UK #Launch to 2026, Cites Infrastructure and Funding Challenges

https://orbitaltoday.com/2025/06/24/uks-orbex-delays-first-launch-to-2026-cites-infrastructure-and-funding-challenges/

#Orbex dismayed the Scottish 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 government in December last year when, with little warning, it pulled the plug on building its own #spaceport, in #Sutherland. The UK “doesn’t need the capacity for two spaceports right now”. The question is, will it ever ? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/02/meet-space-entrepreneur-phil-chambers-break-reliance-musk/

Orbex has won a new contract with D-Orbit for two launches aboard Orbex Prime, the company’s micro-launcher, over the course of the next three years. Orbex announced the deal, Feb. 3. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. #orbex #d-orbit #prime #SaxaVord #Shetland 🇬🇧

Orbex Wins Launch Contract Wit...

Starting in 📆 2025, at least two #European 🇪🇺 launch startups (#IsarAerospace and #RocketFactory Augsburg) expect to offer more choices for both institutional and commercial customers. The field will continue to widen toward the close of the decade, with #MaiaSpace, #Latitude, #HyImpulse, #HyPrSpace, #Orbex, #PLDSpace, and #Skyrora all working toward an inaugural flight of their respective vehicles. https://europeanspaceflight.com/arianegroup-already-working-to-secure-iris2-launch-contract

#Arianespace #IRIS2 #SpaceCompany #competition #Europe

#Orbex : “The first orbital #spaceflight from the #UK 🇬🇧 has come a step closer following the Highland Council’s decision for the #Sutherland #spaceport”.

Other private aerospace companies have also developed #3Dprinted rocket engines :

• #RocketCrafters has successfully completed a series of tests ahead of a planned test flight later this year.
• #RocketLab's #Electron
• #RelativitySpace will develop “the world’s first fully 3D printed rocket.”

https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/orbex-3d-printed-rocket-to-be-the-first-launched-from-uks-new-sutherland-space-hub-173669

#3Dprint #rocket

#Orbex will receive €5.6 million, #IsarAerospace €15 million, and both #RocketFactory Augsburg and #HyImpulse €11.8 million each https://europeanspaceflight.com/esa-awards-e44-2m-in-funding-to-four-european-rocket-builders

#ESA

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #Orbex #Sutherland : “We expect the #spaceport to be ready in early spring of next year” https://spacenews.com/orbex-working-towards-2025-first-launch

• #SpinLaunch - centrifuge
• #GreenLaunch - cannon
• #PLDSpace - rocket
• #ImpulseSpace - in-space propulsion
• #ClearSpace - #SpaceDebris cleanup
• #Orbex - biopropane rocket
• #Astroscale - #SpaceDebris cleanup, #satellite refueling
• #RelativitySpace - #3DPrinted rocket
• #SpacePioneer - liquid propellant rocket
• #Gravitics - modular #SpaceStation
https://interestingengineering.com/lists/10-space-startups-eye-on-2024

At the end of 📆 2022, the total funding 💶 secured by all #European 🇪🇺 launch startups since 2011 was €419 million. In 📆 2023, that figure rose to €781 million, an 86% increase 📈 in the industry's total funding to date. In the first month and a half of 📆 2024 alone, another €70.5 million has been added to that figure. With the addition of that early 2024 funding, the total comes to €850 million 💰 https://europeanspaceflight.substack.com/p/state-of-european-launch-startup

#Orbex #PLDSpace #MaiaSpace #RocketFactory #Augsburg #RFA #IsarAerospace

🇪🇺 Top #European Launch Companies of 📆 2023

• #ArianeGroup - Love em or hate em, ArianeGroup remains, for now, the dominant force in the European launch industry
• #PLDSpace - successfully launched the first flight of its suborbital #Miura1
• #Avio - partially successful orbital launch aboard a #Vega rocket
• #IsarAerospace - completed a total of 124 hot fire tests of its Aquila engine
• #RocketFactory Augsburg - relying on the timely completion of #SaxaVord to conduct its maiden flight
• #HyImpulse - #SaxaVord was not ready to host the launch
• #MaiaSpace - first successful hot fire test of a #Prometheus engine
• #Latitude - hot fire test campaign of its #Navier engine
• #Orbex - journey to build its own launch facility officially kicked off in May
• #BayernChemie - #RedKite rocket launched from #Andoya

https://europeanspaceflight.com/top-european-launch-companies-of-2023/

Organizations to build the technology to #deorbit ⤵️ #SpaceDebris 🗑️

• #Astroscale
• #ClearSpace
• #Neuraspace
• #ShareMySpace
• #Airbus
• #Vyoma
• #TransAstra
• #Orbex
• #Kyoto University
• #ESA
• #IAU CPS

https://interestingengineering.com/lists/11-organizations-space-debris-problem

The new #Ariane 6 rocket, which is running four years late ⏳ and still hasn't flown, should be the last #LaunchVehicle developed by #ESA, which will launch a competition of #launchers without weight class limitations. The field of startup launch companies in #Europe 🇪🇺 includes German 🇩🇪 firms like #HyImpulse, #RocketFactory Augsburg, and #IsarAerospace; British 🇬🇧 companies such as #Skyrora and #Orbex; and Spain's 🇪🇸 #PLDSpace. #ESA will use around 75 million euros 💰 to pay for the early stages of the #cargo 📦 challenge, which #Aschbacher expects will result in three companies competing with one another https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/11/after-the-sting-of-ariane-6-europe-finally-embraces-commercial-rockets/

Baubeginn in Sutherland, dem ersten Startplatz und Raumfahrtzentrum auf dem britischen Festland
14,6 Millionen Pfund öffentliches Investitionspaket für klimaneutrales Raumfahrtprojekt bestätigt. Eine Pressemitteilung von Orbex. (sg) #Orbex
https://www.raumfahrer.net/baubeginn-in-sutherland-dem-ersten-startplatz-und-raumfahrtzentrum-auf-dem-britischen-festland/

A #CarbonNeutral #Spaceport is being created in the #Scottish Highlands: https://spaceflightnow.com/2023/05/08/start-of-construction-paves-way-for-first-uk-mainland-vertical-launch/

I like the goal, but I'm sceptical about quite how sustainable most #biofuel is. "Futuria Liquid Gas", which will be powering the #Orbex rockets, seems to come from "waste oils and fats" (according to https://www.calor.co.uk/sustainable-fuel/futuria-liquid-gas?tabname=how-is-futuria-liquid-gas-made), which begs the question, how sustainable is the production of those oils and fats?

Anyway, overall I very much appreciate the sustainable ethos behind this. Best of luck Orbex.

"Baubeginn in Sutherland, dem ersten Startplatz und Raumfahrtzentrum auf dem britischen Festland"

"14,6 Millionen Pfund öffentliches Investitionspaket für klimaneutrales Raumfahrtprojekt bestätigt. Eine Pressemitteilung von Orbex."

https://www.raumfahrer.net/baubeginn-in-sutherland-dem-ersten-startplatz-und-raumfahrtzentrum-auf-dem-britischen-festland/

#England #Großbritannien #Orbex #Raumfahrt #Raumfahrtzentrum #Schottland #SutherlandSpaceport #Spaceport #UK #Weltraumbahnhof

5.5.2023

NASASpaceflight.com: Orbex breaks ground on Sutherland Spaceport as UK prepares to enter domestic launch market - NASASpaceFlight.com

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2023/05/orbex-sutherland-spaceport/
#uklaunch
#orbex
#sutherlandspaceport

#PhysicsWorld 🇬🇧 "the official line from the #government 🏢 is that #SpaceLaunch facilities will be a boon to the #UK economy, swelling UK industry capitalization from £17 billion now to £40 billion 💰 by 2030. One hurdle is #competition. There are around 168 #LaunchCompanies around the world 🌏, at different stages of development. Even if many fall by the wayside the #LaunchMarket will inevitably become crowded, making it a challenge for UK #SpacePorts to compete.
#Skyrora uses #Ecosene, a premium kerosene derived from unrecyclable #plastic waste 🗑️. #Orbex uses the renewable ultralow-carbon fuel #BioLPG. #ClearSpace and #Astroscale are designing missions to remove #SpaceDebris." https://physicsworld.com/a/uk-spaceports-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly