The opening of Orbex’s rocket factory in Scotland heralds the return of UK space launch capability after nearly half a century. TEREZA PULTAROVA reports.
Britain’s spacefaring dreams have moved closer to reality with the opening of the Orbex rocket factory near Inverness in the north of Scotland in early February. The facility, located at the Forres Enterprise Park, opened its doors only four and a half years after the UK Government had first floated the idea of launching satellites from UK soil.
Orbex, which in July 2018 announced it had secured £30m in public and private funding for the development of orbital space launch systems, will manufacture carbon fibre structures and avionics for its Prime micro-satellite launcher at the site. Propulsion systems will be made at facilities in Copenhagen in Denmark and brought to Forres for integration.
The factory opening marks an important step towards the realisation of the UK’s ambition to launch satellites from British soil by the early 2020s using home-grown technology. The endeavour is, in a sense, a continuation of a dream abandoned nearly 50 years ago when the Black Arrow rocket programme was discontinued due to financial reasons after a single successful orbital launch.
Primed and ready
Nearly 50 years ago now, Black Arrow was the last time a UK designed and developed rocket launched a British satellite. (Wikipedia)
Prime is designed to carry between 150 and 200kg of payload up to an altitude of 1,250km, featuring somewhat better capabilities than Black Arrow, which in 1971 launched into low Earth orbit the 66kg research satellite Prospero.
There is one significant difference though. Black Arrow, while made in the UK, with components manufactured at various sites including the Isle of Wight, Coventry and Westcott, had to be shipped around the globe to Woomera, Australia, for launch.
Orbex’s factory, on the contrary, is conveniently located only 140km from the planned Sutherland spaceport, the expected main launch site for Prime. “We can take the rocket to the launch site in Sutherland on a single truck in two hours,” said Orbex’s CEO and serial entrepreneur Chris Larmour. “We are also looking at Norway and the Azores as our backup launch opportunities.”
Orbex is part of the main consortium developing the UK vertical launch spaceport in Sutherland together with the Highlands and Islands Enterprise and US aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
The location of the spaceport, Larmour believes, presents an exciting option for Europe-based small satellite builders and operators, who would otherwise have to ship their spacecraft to Kazakhstan or India.
Optimum Prime
Second stage of Orbex's new Prime launcher at its factory opening in Scotland in February. (Orbex Space).
At the factory opening, Orbex unveiled an engineering prototype of the second stage of the Prime launcher – a novel vehicle designed to be 20% more efficient and 30% lighter than other comparable micro-launchers currently in development. The vehicle, featuring the largest 3D-printed rocket engine ever produced as a single unit, according to Orbex, will also generate 90% fewer emissions than most existing rockets.
The key to the rocket’s efficiency and environmental friendliness is the use of lightweight carbon fibre structures and the green propellant bio-propane alongside oxidiser liquid oxygen.
The Prime launcher features the largest-ever 3D-printed rocket engine. (Orbex)
“Bio-propane, or bioLPG, gives us some really unique options because it stays liquid even at the very low temperature of liquid oxygen,” said Jonas B. Bjarnø, Orbex’s Chief Technology Officer. “It has the ability to densify when cooled down from ambient temperature. You get about a 30% increase in density, meaning that the vehicle carries more capabilities for the same volume.”
Bjarnø, who before joining Orbex worked on a multitude of high-profile international missions including NASA’s Jupiter probe Juno, said the advanced composite and carbon-fibre technology which the company is using, allowed Orbex engineers to create a much simpler launcher at the centre of which is a coaxial embedded tank system. “That allows us to condition the bioLPG using the liquid oxygen and then suddenly, the entire engineering behind this becomes very simple,” he said. “Instead of relying on external conditioning systems, you simply end up with a thermodynamic vehicle. We are relying on simple thermodynamic principles to generate a higher performance than most other vehicles out there with the same physical envelope but also at a lower cost and a lower environmental impact.”
Innovative reusability
Orbex hopes to fly Prime for the first time in late 2021 but, until then, a lot of work remains to be done including construction of the vehicle’s first stage, which is supposed to be reusable and designed to land on water, according to Larmour.
“A large part of the first stage will be reusable,” Larmour said. “Certainly the engine pack, which has six engines and makes up a huge part of the cost of the vehicle. If we can get it back it will be a significant saving.” Larmour declined to comment on specifics of the technology, saying it is currently patent-pending.
One day the Moon...
Aiming high from Scotland. (Orbex)
Orbex, which in the summer of 2018 emerged as a frontrunner among the current generation of British rocket builders, had been quietly developing its technology since 2015. The venture, Larmour said, started rather as a hobby project than a serious business; the original idea being to build a rocket to fly to the Moon.
Early on, Larmour involved in his ambition, Kristian von Bengston, a co-funder of Copenhagen Suborbitals, a Danish crowd-funded amateur manned space programme, which has successfully flown several amateur rockets. By early 2015, von Bengston joined Orbex full-time and became the firm’s Chief Development Officer.
“At a certain point in 2015 I realised that actually, if you could build a launch vehicle that you could get to orbit, that would be quite a unique thing and probably quite valuable,” said Larmour. The timing of the project fitted in well with the UK’s spacefaring ambitions. Larmour said that after the maiden launch, for which SSTL will provide an experimental payload, the company hopes to gradually increase the launch cadence up to once a month.
During the factory opening, Orbex announced a contract with Swiss start-up Astrocast, which is developing a constellation of 64 cubesats that could provide IoT data services in areas not covered by cellular networks. Orbex will launch ten of Astrocast’s satellites. In addition to the experimental payload for the maiden flight, SSTL has signed a contract with Orbex for another launch. Orbex’s strategic investor Elecnor Deimos Space previously purchased 24 Prime launches.
Larmour said Orbex expects to remain in Scotland regardless of the complications related to the UK’s chaotic exit from the European Union.
“Brexit doesn’t change the fact that Scotland is an excellent location to launch from,” said Larmour. “I don’t see any major challenges for us today. We are looking at what it might mean from the business point of view. Hopefully, it will be resolved in an elegant way and not be a huge problem.”