Since there’s not a lot happening on the Brexit front, other than Esther McVey spouting lies through her twitter account, we thought it worthwhile having a look around this whole space business that we’ve recently been excited about.
Way up in the Scottish Highlands near to the city of Inverness in an industrial unit a large crowd of dignitaries, journalists and industry specialists gather around a shiny projectile hanging from the ceiling of a huge hangar, smothered in light from the onslaught of flashes from the excited photographers. The projectile drawing all the attention was the latest development from Danish launch company, Orbex, in the shape of its stage 2 rocket carrying the snappy ‘Prime’ moniker.
Since last year’s announcement by the UK Space Agency that it was funding a spaceport in the Scottish Highlands, from which Orbex have secured £5.5m, the company appear to have ‘rocketed’ ahead with development of their vehicle. This takes the total amount raised by the firm to over £30m.
The company have only just came out of ‘stealth mode’ according to recent commentary. Which conjures up images of engineers working in a dark shed with top secret blueprints pinned to the walls and welding masks hanging beside them. A very stark contrast to images published from their unveiling with all the glitz and glamour of a Japanese motor vehicle launch. This may not be too far from the truth as it appears one of the founders did emerge from a background as a member of an amateur rocket club. Director & CEO Chris Larmour teamed up with the co-founder of Copenhagen Suborbitals, Kristian von Bengtson in 2014. At the time, the group of enthusiasts had been launching rockets from a ship in the Baltic Sea just for the fun of it, The group would eventually go on to hit further problems when one of its co-founders, Peter Madsen was accused of murdering journalist Kim Wall and sinking one of the group’s submarines (they dabbled in building submarines too). The whole situation with the charges brought against the founder was completely bizarre and anybody in their right mind would understandably make all efforts to distance themselves from it. He was eventually found guilty and imprisoned for life (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kim_Wall ) .
It’s not clear whether Orbex’ rocket technology or any of its assets are part of the Copenhagen Suborbitals legacy, but regardless of whether they are or not, one would expect the company to distance itself as much as possible from its origins, given the gory historical links with co-founder Peter Madsen.
Back in 2014 when Bengtson and Larmour teamed up, they didn’t hang about in setting up a new venture under the name of Moonspike (now Orbex). Moonspike launched a crowdfunder in 2015 aiming to raise 600,000 but fell well short of that target by hitting only £79,000 by November 2015 when the crowdfunder ended. Two months later the company changed its name to Orbital Express Launch (aka Orbex). and disappeared off the radar for a while, reappearing in late 2017 with results of some engine tests and then again in summer of 2018 to announce its newly secured funding round of around £30m (£5.5m of which was from the UK Govt Space Agency) following the UKSA announcement of £50m being made available for a spaceport in the North of Scotland. The bulk of which was given to US company Lockheed Martin.
It looks like it has been a rocky ride for the guys at Orbex, having to distance itself from any historical connection with the controversial goings on at Copenhagen Orbitals and the shady activities surrounding the group, and yet somehow managed to emerge unscathed with £30m in the bank, a lucrative order book and a cosy new friendship with Lockheed Martin.
Brexit and Other News 