Orbex mothballs plans for Sutherland Spaceport, relocates operations to SaxaVord
Orbex’s apparently financially-motivated move from Sutherland to Shetland has been welcomed by SaxaVord, which explains that “the decision enables [Orbex] to direct more funding to the development of a new, medium-sized launch vehicle called Promixa”. SaxaVord Spaceport CEO Frank Strang elaborated that “it makes sense for Orbex to start operations from SaxaVord Spaceport, which is already licensed and in a position to support their upcoming launches”.
With Orbex’s goal to “support the European space industry by achieving a sustainable series of satellite launches into low Earth orbit,” Orbex CEO Phil Chambers said that this mission is “best achieved by focusing [its] resources and talents on developing launch vehicles and associated launch services” rather than the initial infrastructure integral to support them.
Although this “decision to pause construction was not taken lightly,” Chambers clarified that Orbex remains committed to its Forres facility (where its manufacturing and engineering centre is based). Upcoming expansion of this site will prove instrumental in ensuring Orbex “can meet demand for its smaller vehicle, known as Prime,” alongside a successive medium-sized launch vehicle.
The company will also retain its lease to build and operate the Spaceport at Sutherland “in order to give it flexibility to increase launch capacity in the future”
Sutherland Spaceport (formerly Space Hub Sutherland) was granted planning permission in November 2020, with Orbex selected to build and operate the facility (on the north coast of Scotland) in November 2022. Construction of the site (destined to be first vertical launch spaceport to be built on the UK mainland) commenced in May 2023, with the Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) estimating the spaceport’s presence could generate almost £1 billion in gross value added for the Highlands and Islands economy over the next 30 years.
To date, the Sutherland Spaceport project has also received £3 million from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, augmenting a public investment package (including over £9 million from HIE and the Scottish Government, and £2.55 million from the UK Space Agency in 2018).
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