Fifty years from Black Arrow, new UK launchpad
Orbex has started construction of a UK 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 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 platform, known as Orbex LP1, is expected to be fully operational by early 2022. It will support the testing of Orbex´s Prime rocket, a micro-launcher designed to transport small satellites weighing around 150kg to low Earth orbit. While actual launches of the Orbex Prime rocket will not take place at the Kinloss site, the 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. High Down was the test site for the Black Arrow rocket, the only British-made rocket to successfully deliver a satellite into Earth's orbit, launching from Woomera in Australia in 1971.
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