WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle developer Orbex will halt work on its own launch site in northern Scotland and instead use a rival facility in the Shetland Islands.
Orbex announced Dec. 4 that it would “pause” construction of Sutherland Spaceport in Scotland and instead use the SaxaVord Spaceport on the island of Unst in the Shetlands for its Prime launch vehicle.
The move, Orbex said, will free up resources to allow the company to focus on launch vehicle development, including both Prime and a new medium-class vehicle called Proxima.
“Orbex is first and foremost a launch services specialist. Our primary goal is to support the European space industry by achieving a sustainable series of satellite launches into low Earth orbit. This is best achieved by focusing our resources and talents on developing launch vehicles and associated launch services,” Phil Chambers, chief executive of Orbex, said in a statement.
“This decision will help us to reach first launch in 2025 and provides SaxaVord with another customer to further strengthen its commercial proposition. It’s a win-win for U.K. and Scottish space,” he added.
Orbex had been linked to Spaceport Sutherland since the U.K. Space Agency announced in 2018 it selected the site for a vertical launch complex. The agency awarded contracts to both Orbex and Lockheed Martin to conduct launches from the site.
Lockheed Martin, partnered with ABL Space Systems, subsequently shifted its launch to SaxaVord; ABL announced Nov. 15 it was pivoting from launch to missile defense. Orbex, though, continued to work on the Sutherland launch site, going through a years-long approval process that the company said in 2023 was complete.
The shift from Sutherland to SaxaVord took many by surprise. As recently as November Orbex continued to move ahead with work at Sutherland, including releasing tenders for construction work on the next phases of the facility. It also won approvals to shift tracking antennas to a nearby mountaintop.
Orbex had not disclosed the full cost of developing the spaceport, which had backing of more than 14 million pounds ($17.8 million) from various government organizations. The company did not state how much it will save by launching from SaxaVord, which will still require construction of facilities to support Prime.
“The decision enables us to direct more funding to the development of our rockets,” an Orbex spokesperson told SpaceNews, without quantifying that funding. “We will have exclusive use of our own pad at the SaxaVord Spaceport in Shetland and we are in the early stages of assessing the infrastructure we need to support the launch of Prime.”
The move to SaxaVord helps cement that spaceport’s status as the U.K.’s leading launch site. Spaceport Cornwall, in southwestern England, hosted the first orbital launch from U.K. soil in January 2023 by Virgin Orbit, although that mission failed to reach orbit. With Virgin Orbit’s bankruptcy months later and a lack of other air-launch systems, that facility is unlikely to host orbital launches for the foreseeable future.
“We’re delighted to welcome Orbex to SaxaVord,” Frank Strang, chief executive of SaxaVord Spaceport, said in a statement. “Given the scale of their ambition and the evolution of their offer to include a medium-sized launch vehicle, it makes sense for Orbex to start operations from SaxaVord Spaceport, which is already licensed and in a position to support their upcoming launches.”
SaxaVord currently hosts German company Rocket Factory Augsburg, which was preparing for the first launch of its RFA ONE rocket in August when the vehicle was destroyed in a static-fire test. The company plans to return to the spaceport for a launch attempt some time in 2025. Another German launch startup, HyImpulse, has also announced plans to launch from SaxaVord after conducing suborbital launches from Australia.
In its announcement, Orbex provided no details about Proxima, its medium-class vehicle, including when the vehicle would be ready to launch and its performance. The company will likely have to raise significant additional capital to develop it, even with any cost savings realized by moving launch operations to SaxaVord.
In an interview in July at the Farnborough International Airshow, Chambers said the company did have a launch vehicle larger than Prime on its roadmap, but didn’t give a schedule for development. He said such a vehicle could be better suited than Prime for the European Launcher Challenge, a competition run by the European Space Agency to support the development of new launch vehicles,
“Medium-sized space rockets will play an important role in the European space industry in years to come,” Chambers said in the statement announcing the move to SaxaVord. “Pausing the construction of our own spaceport enables us to now focus on developing this offering.”
Orbex, in the statement, left open the door to return to Sutherland. It said it will retain its lease on the property for the spaceport and consider building a facility there if demand warrants. “This will be kept under continuous review,” the company stated.