The "shy and modest" and certainly dark horse of the small sat launchers, Orbex, finally reveal a completed engineering prototype of the unique Prime Stage 2 rocket

Chasing the likes of Rocket Lab and Firefly, Orbex are positioning themselves as a world leading small Satellite Launch provider, with the potential of an all UK launch in 2021.

Quick facts

• The world’s largest 3-D printed rocket engine

• First commercial rocket engine designed to work with bio-propane, a clean-burning, renewable fuel source that cuts carbon emissions by 90% compared to fossil hydrocarbon fuels,

• Calor; Orbex’s exclusive BioLPG fuel partner ...Yes, as in the camping and BBQ gas company ...It runs on Patio Gas!!!

• Lightweight carbon fibre and aluminium composite rocket design

• 30% lighter and 20% more efficient than any other vehicle in category, and packing more power per cubic litre than even some heavy launchers

• Orbex had already won £30 million ($40 million) in private and public backing for the project, Europe's best-funded private launch company, straight out of stealth mode at the Farnborough Airshow in July 2018

• Prime's maiden flight from Scotland in 2021; An experimental payload from UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) (Making the same Journey from Guildford to Forres as Matt)

• Demonstrating a significant first! UK's end-to-end launch capability with a UK rocket launching a UK satellite from a UK spaceport

• Global Internet of Things (IoT) network; Swiss-based Astrocast SA, has selected Orbex to launch multiple nano-satellites

• Elecnor Deimos, also a strategic investor in Orbex, has also confirmed that it has contracted up to twenty satellite launches.

The Podcast traveled to Forres, in the Scottish highlands where Orbex, at the opening of its new headquarters and rocket design, facility unveiled its Prime rocket for the first time at the opening ceremony attended by VIPs from the UK and European space community.

Listen to Next weeks Podcast out on the Friday 15th February

• Interview with Graham Turnock, Chief Executive, UK Space Agency

• Extremely candid interview with Chris Larmour, Orbex CEO

Orbex is a UK-based spaceflight company, with subsidiaries and production facilities in Denmark and Germany.

Scotland is a massive player in Satellite building as in the rest of the UK.

Orbex staff members have professional backgrounds with NASA, ESA and several other commercial spaceflight organisations. The company is funded by two of Europe's largest venture capital funds, Sunstone Technology Ventures and the High-Tech Gründerfonds, as well as strategic investor Elecnor Deimos Space, the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme