With Europe facing a crisis in its access to space, the continent’s sole launch provider, Arianespace, has signed memorandums of understanding with startups Orbex and PLD Space to explore partnerships that could provide a range of rides to orbit for customers.
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by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
During the first seven months of the year, five new satellite launch vehicles from Europe, China, Russia and South Korea flew successfully for the first time. As impressive as that is, it was a mere opening act to a busy period that could see at least 20 additional launchers debut around the world.
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by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
On Christmas Day 2021, an European Ariane 5 rocket roared off its launch pad in French Guiana with the most expensive payload the booster had ever carried, the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope. The launcher performed perfectly, sending the most powerful space telescope on a journey to its final destination 1.5 million km (900 million miles) from Earth. The launch was so accurate that Webb should have sufficient propellant to perform science operations for much longer than its planned 10-year lifetime.
There was a collective sigh of relief among the European, American and Canadian scientists and engineers involved in the long-delayed program. It was a superb Christmas gift to a world suffering through the second year of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
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KINLOSS, UK (UK Space Agency PR) — The UK Space Agency has welcomed news that the British rocket company Orbex has unveiled the first full-scale prototype of its Prime orbital space rocket.
Orbex’s Prime rocket reaching technical readiness represents a significant achievement that brings together key elements of the ground infrastructure and prototype launch vehicle for the first time and is a major step forward for the company and for the UK launch industry.
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New X-Ray Inspection System will ensure reliability and safety of Orbex rocket engines
FORRES, UK, March 22, 2022 (Orbex PR) – Orbex and FORCE Technology have been awarded a new contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) to further develop an X-Ray Inspection System for rocket engines.
The system will enable the two firms to carry out non-destructive, high-energy X-ray inspections of Orbex’s large-scale 3D-printed rocket engines prior to flight, using advanced technology to eliminate any internal flaws. It will become a key component of the Orbex engine testing regime, reinforcing the reliability and safety credentials of the Orbex ‘Prime’ rocket.
The award is the sixth development contract that Orbex has received from the ESA. It will work closely with FORCE Technology to develop the technology – and will become one of the first launch operators to use it.
(more…)New film shows ‘Orbex LP1’ launch platform’s 80-mile road trip across Scotland and construction
FORRES, UK, February 15, 2022 (Orbex PR) – The first rocket launchpad constructed in the UK for more than 50 years is now in place at the Orbex test site in Kinloss, Scotland.
The new launchpad – known as ‘Orbex LP1’ – recently completed an 80-mile road trip from Peterhead to Kinloss on two trucks, accompanied by a police escort. The three-hour journey through the dramatic Scottish countryside during sun, rain and snow was captured in a short film shown above.
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FORRES, UK, 3 February 2022 (Orbex PR) – Orbex has submitted its application to the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for a launch licence, the latest stage on its roadmap to beginning commercial space launches from the UK.
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FORRES, UK, December 9, 2021 (Orbex PR) – Orbex, Europe’s leading private small satellite launch services provider, has today 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.
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.
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Calor to install BioLPG equipment at the Orbex Launchpad Test Platform facility ahead of Prime rocket launch
FORRES, UK, December 2, 2021 (Orbex PR) – Orbex and Calor have entered into an agreement that will see the iconic UK gas company supply the ultra-low carbon fuel that will launch the Orbex Prime rocket.
(more…)FORRES, UK, October 21, 2021 – The carbon footprint of launching the new Orbex Prime space rocket will be up to 96 per cent lower than comparable space launch programmes, a new scientific study has revealed.
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