UK rocket companies receive £9m European funding

Two UK rocket companies aiming to start satellite launches next year have received £9m funding from the European Space Agency (ESA).

Orbex, based in Forres, Scotland, received £6.4m through ESA’s Boost! programme, while Edinburgh firm Skyrora received £2.6m.

Planning to launch payloads of up to 150kg to low-Earth-orbit, Orbex will fly its two-stage Prime ‘microlauncher’ from Space Hub Sutherland in the A’Mhoine peninsula in Scotland.

Measuring 19m tall, Prime is powered by a 3D-printed engine that runs on liquid oxygen and sub-cooled bio-propane, a clean-burning renewable fuel. It is also potentially reusable.

ESA is co-funding the avionics, software and guidance, navigation and control (GNC) activities for the vehicle. Orbex has partnered with Deimos Engenharia in Portugal and Deimos Space UK, subcontractors on the Boost! contract, for part of the GNC activities. £6m of the funding will be assigned to work carried out in the UK, with the remaining £390,000 assigned to work in Portugal.

“Microlaunchers will soon be launching for the first time from the European continent and ESA’s recognition of the commercial and scientific opportunities this brings to Europe is invaluable,” said Orbex CEO Chris Larmour.

Skyrora plans to offer launch services to low-Earth, Sun-synchronous and polar orbits for payloads of up to 315kg with Skyrora XL, its 23m three-stage microlauncher.

The XL rocket is based on liquid propulsion, using a mix of highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide and Ecosene, an in-house rocket fuel made from waste plastics.

“I am delighted that the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency support our programme, which has, to date, delivered outstanding achievements,” said Volodymyr Levykin, founder and CEO of Skyrora.

ESA is co-funding the qualification of the main rocket engine intended for the Skyrora XL first and second stages, as well as the static test firing of the integrated first and second stages.

“There is a growing impetus in European privately-led space transportation initiatives, like the ones from Orbex and Skyrora. This emerging dynamism is crucial in the long-term success of the European space sector,” said Lucía Linares, head of strategy and institutional launches in the ESA Directorate for Space Transportation.