Orbex, a small satellite launch services provider, has announced it has started construction of its first state-of-the-art launch platform, the first orbital space launchpad to be built in the UK for more than half a century.
According to a news release from the firm:
“Orbex has commissioned Motive Offshore Group, a leading Scottish company specialising in the design and manufacture of marine and lifting equipment, to fabricate and install the Launch Platform at a dedicated test site near Kinloss, close to the Orbex headquarters in Forres, Scotland.
The Launch Platform, known as Orbex LP1, is expected to be fully operational by early 2022. An artist’s visualisation of the new facility has been released by Orbex today, as well as images of the ongoing construction at Motive Offshore.
The new Launch Platform will support the testing of Orbex´s Prime rocket, a micro-launcher designed to transport small satellites weighing around 150kg to low Earth orbit. Although actual launches of the Orbex Prime rocket will not take place at the Kinloss site, the Launch Platform will be fully capable of launching an orbital rocket, allowing for full ‘dress rehearsals’ of launch procedures.”
Orbex LP1 is the first launchpad of its kind to be built in the UK since the High Down Rocket Test Site facility on the Isle of Wight, which was decommissioned in the early 1970s. High Down was the test site for the Black Arrow rocket, the first – and so far only – British-made rocket to successfully deliver a satellite into Earth’s orbit, launching from Woomera in Australia on 28 October 1971.
Chris Larmour, CEO of Orbex:
“The ability for our engineers to test Prime on its own launchpad is a major advancement on the roadmap to launch, and we are happy to already be constructing this major piece of infrastructure with Motive Offshore, a partner which has a very strong track record in other relevant industries. This will be the first launchpad of its kind built in the UK for more than half a century and we look forward to seeing it completed and ready to go into service in the New Year.”
I wonder why they didn’t go down the same route as Astra in making the launcher mobile and able to set up on any suitable patch of concrete?
This is a test facility.
In which case they could test a mobile launcher too.
I believe Orbex’s rocket is more or less a carbon copy of Black Arrow. They even bought and imported Black Arrow’s wreckage to decorate their office
No clue!
Only a skin deep similarity. Black Arrow used kerosene and Hydrogen Peroxide, Orbex uses propane and liquid Hydrogen.
Congratulations the dumbest comment I have seen all day.
No clue if you are right there.
…. And more of interest where will they be launching Prime then.
There was the engine test stand for Blue Streak at Spadeadam.
Are you sure that Highdown on the I.O.W. was actually a launch site ?. When John Scott-Scott of Rolls Royce described it to me it was only for engine testing.