Orbex is an aerospace company that is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. Orbex is headquartered in Forres, Moray, in Scotland and has subsidiaries in Denmark and Germany. Its future launch complex, Sutherland spaceport, is being built on the A' Mhòine peninsula in the county of Sutherland, northern Scotland.[4]
Orbex, a UK-based aerospace company, is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. The company was founded in 2015 and has secured funding for the development of its rocket system. Orbex plans to launch from the Sutherland spaceport in Scotland and has a factory in Forres. The Prime rocket is designed to be reusable and will use a non-toxic bi-propellant. The maiden flight is expected in 2025. Additionally, the document provides information about the Zenit-2 rocket and the Tsyklon-2 rocket.
Orbex is a United Kingdom-based aerospace company that is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. It is headquartered in Forres, Moray, in Scotland and has subsidiaries in Denmark and Germany. Its future launch complex, Sutherland spaceport, is being built on the A' Mhòine peninsula in the county of Sutherland, northern Scotland. For more information, you can visit the Orbex Wikipedia page.
Orbex was founded by Chris Larmour and Kristian von Bengtson.
Orbex has secured £30 million in public and private funding for the development of its orbital rocket system, named Prime. In October 2022, Orbex closed a £40.4 million Series C funding round. The company has received $20.7 million in a Series D funding round in 2024. Source: Orbex - Wikipedia
Official website of Orbex: https://orbex.space
Orbital Express Launch Ltd., or Orbex, is a United Kingdom-based[3] aerospace company that is developing a small commercial orbital rocket called Prime. Orbex is headquartered in Forres, Moray, in Scotland and has subsidiaries in Denmark and Germany. Its future launch complex, Sutherland spaceport, is being built on the A' Mhòine peninsula in the county of Sutherland, northern Scotland.[4]
Overview
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The company was founded in 2015 as Moonspike Ltd., with the goal of crowdfunding a private spacecraft mission to the Moon.[5] A Kickstarter campaign running from 1 October to 1 November 2015 raised less than £79,000 out of a goal of £600,000, rendering Moonspike ineligible for the funds.[6] Moonspike was renamed Orbital Express Launch Ltd. in 2016, with the company now aiming to provide commercial launch services of nano- and microsatellites, especially CubeSats, to polar and Sun-synchronous low Earth orbits.[7] In July 2018, Orbex secured £30 million in public and private funding for the development of its orbital rocket system, named Prime.[1][8] In October 2022 Orbex closed a £40.4 million Series C funding round.[9][10] Orbex has opened a factory for Prime in Forres, Scotland that employs 150 people.[2] Currently, the company is working on developing the Prime vehicle, while preparing for the initial launch from the Sutherland spaceport.
The Sutherland spaceport in northern Scotland was initially intended to be shared with Lockheed Martin, who at the time did not have a launch vehicle, but their strategic shareholding in Rocket Lab led to speculation that they would launch with the Rocket Lab Electron rocket, but since the two vehicles (Electron and Prime) use different propellants, the two companies would have separate launch pads while sharing some common infrastructure. The planning application for the site, however, includes only one launchpad. Lockheed Martin then moved their launch plans to a competing site, SaxaVord Spaceport, in the Shetland Isles.[1][11][12] Orbex also plans to launch from a future spaceport in the Portuguese Azores.[13][14]
In 2024, it was reported that the company received $20.7 million in a Series D funding round, with the bulk of the funds going towards development of the Prime launch vehicle which has not yet announced a launch window.[15]
Prime
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Orbex is currently developing a light launch vehicle called Prime, and its booster (first stage) is planned to be reusable.[16][17] The rocket's diameter is 1.45 m (4 ft 9 in),[18] and will use a non-toxic bi-propellant consisting of liquid oxygen and propane. One cited advantage of using propane is that it remains liquid at cryogenic temperatures, which enables a design where a central carbon-fibre tank of propane is surrounded by an outer tank of liquid oxygen, creating a light structural mass.[1] First stage reuse is planned to be achieved by a combination of a parachute and four ‘petals’ which will fold out prior to atmospheric reentry to induce drag and passively reorient the vehicle.[19] It will be capable of launching payloads up to 150 kilograms (330 lb) to a standard 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit.[1][17]
The maiden flight of Prime is expected to occur in 2025,[2] subject to the availability of Space Hub Sutherland and a Civil Aviation Authority launch licence,[20] for Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.[2][21] Orbex also announced it was chosen by nanosatellite startup Astrocast to launch their communications satellites.[22]
See also
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- Skyrora, another British launch service provider
- Rocket Lab, a US and New Zealand based smallsat launch provider
- Black Arrow, a retired British rocket
- PLD Space, another European smallsat launcher based in Spain
- Private spaceflight
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Scout X-2 was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket which was flown twice in 1962. It was a four-stage rocket, based on the earlier Scout X-1, uprated first and third stages. It was a member of the Scout family of rockets.
The Scout X-2 used an Algol 1D first stage, instead of the earlier Algol 1B used on the Scout X-1. The third stage was the Antares 2A, a more powerful version of the Antares 1A used on earlier variants of the Scout rocket. The second and fourth stages were the same as those used on the Scout X-1; a Castor 1A and an Altair 1A respectively.
The first Scout X-2 was launched on a suborbital flight at 07:27 GMT on 29 March 1962. It flew from Launch Area 3 of the Wallops Flight Facility. The flight carried plasma and aeronomy experiments to an apogee of 6,291 kilometres (3,909 mi), and was successful. The second flight, launched on 26 April, carried the Solrad 4B satellite. It failed to reach orbit. Following this launch, the Scout X-2 was replaced by the upgraded Scout X-2M.
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This article is about the rocket. For the satellite, see Zenit (satellite) § Zenit 2.
For the football team, see FC Zenit-2 Saint Petersburg.
The Zenit-2 was a Ukrainian, previously Soviet, expendable carrier rocket. First flown in 1985, it has been launched 37 times, with 6 failures. It is a member of the Zenit family of rockets and was designed by the Yuzhmash.
History[edit]
With 13–15 ton payload in LEO, it was intended as up-middle-class launcher greater than 7-ton-payload middle Soyuz and smaller than 20-ton-payload heavy Proton. Zenit-2 would be certified for crewed launches and placed in specially built launch pad at Baykonur spaceport, carrying the new crewed partially reusable Zarya spacecraft that developed in end of the 1980s but was cancelled. Also in the 1980s Vladimir Chelomey's firm proposed the never realised 15-ton Uragan spaceplane, which would have been launched by Zenit-2.
A modified version, the Zenit-2S, is used as the first two stages of the Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket.[3] Launches of Zenit-2 rockets are conducted from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 45/1. A second pad, 45/2, was also constructed, but was only used for two launches before being destroyed in an explosion.[4] A third pad, Site 35 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome was never completed, and work was abandoned after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.[5]
The Zenit-2 had its last flight in 2004; it has been superseded by the Zenit-2M, which incorporates enhancements made during the development of the Zenit-3SL. The Zenit-2 has a fairly low flight rate, as the Russian government usually avoids flying national-security payloads on Ukrainian rockets. Zenit-2M itself flew only twice: in 2007 and 2011.
During the late 1990s, the Zenit-2 was marketed for commercial launches. Only one such launch was conducted, with a group of Globalstar satellites, which ended in failure after a computer error resulted in the premature cutoff of the second stage.
The second stage, called the SL-16 by western governments, along with the second stages of the Vostok and Kosmos launch vehicles, makes up about 20% of the total mass of launch debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).[6] An analysis that determined the 50 “statistically most concerning” debris objects in low Earth orbit determined that the top 20 were all SL-16 upper stages.[7]
Launch history[edit]
Main article: List of Zenit launches
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The Tsyklon-2 (Ukrainian: Циклон-2, lit. 'Cyclone-2'), also known as Tsiklon-2 and Tsyklon-M (known as SL-11 by the United States DoD), GRAU index 11K69, was a Soviet, later Ukrainian, orbital carrier rocket used from the 1960s to the late 2000s. The rocket had 106 launches, one suborbital and 105 orbital, with only one failure and 92 consecutive successful launches, from 27 December 1973 with the launch of Kosmos 626 to 25 June 2006 with the final flight of the Tsyklon-2, which makes this launcher most reliable within rocket launched more than 100 times.
History[edit]
A derivative of the R-36 ICBM, and a member of the Tsyklon family, the Tsyklon-2 made its maiden flight on 6 August 1969, and conducted 106 flights, the last one occurring on 24 June 2006. It was the most reliable Soviet/Russian carrier rocket ever used, and launched more than 100 times having failed only once, and the second most reliable carrier rocket overall, behind the Atlas II that was launched only 63 times.[2] Along with other R-36 family member Tsyklon-3, the Tsyklon-2 was retired in favor of new-generation and all-Russian carrier rockets, such as the Angara and Soyuz-2.
Description[edit]
Like the Tsyklon-3, the Tsyklon-2 was derived from the R-36 Scarp ICBM. However, it did not have a third stage, like the Tsyklon-3 did, also it was slightly shorter and had a lower weight mass when fueled.[3]