British rocket startup Orbex goes under
The prototype of Orbex’s never-launched Prime rocket,
on the launchpad in 2022
After waiting four years to get the necessary launch licenses from the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), delays that forced it to abandon its preferred spaceport in Sutherland to go to the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands, the British rocket startup Orbex today announced its effort to find a buyer or new financing had failed and it is going into receivership with the goal of selling off its assets.
Orbex has filed a notice of intention to appointment Administrators and will continue trading while all options for the future of the company are explored, including potential sale of all or parts of its business or assets. The notice provides short-term protection and allows the business time to secure as positive an outcome as possible for its creditors, employees and wider stakeholders.
The funding required for Orbex to remain a viable business was sought from a variety of public and private investors during its Series D funding round, which has ultimately failed. Several merger and acquisition opportunities have also been explored, with none resulting in a favourable outcome.
To repeat this company’s sad story, Orbex had hoped to do its first launch from the proposed Sutherland spaceport on the north coast of Scotland in 2022, but was blocked for four years because of red tape. First, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority would not issue the spaceport and launch licenses. Second, local opposition delayed approvals as well. Those delays ate into the company’s resources, until it became entirely dependent on grants from the UK government (some through the European Space Agency) to keep it afloat.
By 2024 Orbex realized launching from Sutherland was impossible, and it then switched to the Saxavord spaceport in the Shetland Islands. This forced more delays because the company had no facilities there. It had already spent a fortune building everything for Sutherland.
There will be many who will blame this failure on the difficulty of rocket science, but it appears the fault almost entirely lies with the UK government and its odious regulatory regime. Neither Sutherland nor SaxaVord have been able to get anything off the ground, and it appears right now that rocket companies are going everywhere else to find launch sites. New rockets must launch and fail so that they can eventually succeed. The sense I get from the CAA is that it is treating every launch not as a test but as an operational launch that must succeed. Orbex couldn’t meet that standard.
Nor can any other rocket startup. At the moment SaxoVord has only one customer planning to launch, the German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg, but after a static fire explosion in 2024 blocked the launch nothing has happened since. I suspect the company is having problems getting new launch approvals from the CAA.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The prototype of Orbex’s never-launched Prime rocket,
on the launchpad in 2022
After waiting four years to get the necessary launch licenses from the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), delays that forced it to abandon its preferred spaceport in Sutherland to go to the SaxaVord spaceport in the Shetland Islands, the British rocket startup Orbex today announced its effort to find a buyer or new financing had failed and it is going into receivership with the goal of selling off its assets.
Orbex has filed a notice of intention to appointment Administrators and will continue trading while all options for the future of the company are explored, including potential sale of all or parts of its business or assets. The notice provides short-term protection and allows the business time to secure as positive an outcome as possible for its creditors, employees and wider stakeholders.
The funding required for Orbex to remain a viable business was sought from a variety of public and private investors during its Series D funding round, which has ultimately failed. Several merger and acquisition opportunities have also been explored, with none resulting in a favourable outcome.
To repeat this company’s sad story, Orbex had hoped to do its first launch from the proposed Sutherland spaceport on the north coast of Scotland in 2022, but was blocked for four years because of red tape. First, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority would not issue the spaceport and launch licenses. Second, local opposition delayed approvals as well. Those delays ate into the company’s resources, until it became entirely dependent on grants from the UK government (some through the European Space Agency) to keep it afloat.
By 2024 Orbex realized launching from Sutherland was impossible, and it then switched to the Saxavord spaceport in the Shetland Islands. This forced more delays because the company had no facilities there. It had already spent a fortune building everything for Sutherland.
There will be many who will blame this failure on the difficulty of rocket science, but it appears the fault almost entirely lies with the UK government and its odious regulatory regime. Neither Sutherland nor SaxaVord have been able to get anything off the ground, and it appears right now that rocket companies are going everywhere else to find launch sites. New rockets must launch and fail so that they can eventually succeed. The sense I get from the CAA is that it is treating every launch not as a test but as an operational launch that must succeed. Orbex couldn’t meet that standard.
Nor can any other rocket startup. At the moment SaxoVord has only one customer planning to launch, the German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg, but after a static fire explosion in 2024 blocked the launch nothing has happened since. I suspect the company is having problems getting new launch approvals from the CAA.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
As Robert observes, “There will be many who will blame this failure on the difficulty of rocket science, but it appears the fault almost entirely lies with the UK government and its odious regulatory regime. Neither Sutherland nor SaxaVord have been able to get anything off the ground, and it appears right now that rocket companies are going everywhere else to find launch sites.”
The UK is well on its way to becoming a failed, Third World totalitarian state, and this appears to be entirely by design. For whatever reasons, The Powers That Be there seem to despise their own history, culture, and civilization, and they apparently mean to destroy what’s left of their country root and branch, just as the radical left wishes to do in this country. Should they succeed, what will then obtain will be a sinister amalgam of current day North Korea and Iran — “North Korea with Islamic Characteristics” — something darker and more evil than even George Orwell could have imagined.
The astonishing thing is that so few Brits — let alone their “leaders” — seem to be at all concerned about this.
“…and will continue trading…”
Is that like selling shares in the Titanic?
Milt,
“North Korea with Islamic Characteristics” – now there’s a dystopian vision.
I wouldn’t say, though, that “few Brits” are concerned. Recent polling and by-elections suggest the collapse of Labour and the probable victory of Reform in the next elections. The suspense is in whether there will be anything left of the UK by the time said elections eventuate. Chairman Starmer continues his Quisling ways.
Dick Eagleson: You are assuming there WILL be a next election. The Labor party has been doing all it can to postpone and even cancel elections. They are communists. It is in their blood to cancel votes when they know they will lose bad.
I imagine the bureaucrats concerned are giving themselves a “well done, chaps, saw that lot off”.
Carry on.
The UK government is going to be cutting astronomy and physics research by 30%.
Can’t blame Trump on that one.
”You are assuming there WILL be a next election.”
I’m afraid I share Robert’s pessimism here. First of all, at the rate the UK is destroying itself there may not be much left to save by the time late 2029 comes around. Second, parliament reigns supreme in Britain’s democratic system. Even the king rules at the pleasure of parliament.
The prime minister *should* call for elections by fall 2029 at the latest, but my understanding of Britain’s system is that if he doesn’t, no one else can force the issue. So the PM doesn’t even have to do anything to remain in power indefinitely. When the time for elections comes he just has to not call for them. The parliament can replace the prime minister, but if he has the backing of the parliament (and the Labour Party has an absolute majority there), the PM is in the clear.
It would seem to be a glaring hole in the system, but their system, like our Constitution, is fit only for a moral and religious people. I think few here would use those terms to describe the current Labour Party.
mkent: My understanding of present British parliamentary law is that an election must be called by the end of each five year term. It can be called earlier, but must be called after five years.
My worry here is related to the overall contempt the left has for the law in all cases. If it doesn’t fit their needs, they ignore it. When others stand up to them, they like bullies always back off, but once in power and in control, they don’t have to back off any more. That has been the pattern in every case where such people gain power through democratic means, in Germany, in Russia, in Venezuela, in South Africa, in numerous other examples in South America and Africa, and now possibly in Great Britain.
”My understanding of present British parliamentary law is that an election must be called by the end of each five year term.”
Right. Called…..by the prime minister. But what happens if he just doesn’t do it? My understanding is…..nothing. No one else can do it, and no one can force him to do it.
The parliament can replace him, but the parliament is the body that chose him in the first place. The king can dissolve the parliament, but only at the request of the prime minister. The PM has to initiate the action. So if he just doesn’t do it, then what?
”My worry here is related to the overall contempt the left has for the law in all cases. If it doesn’t fit their needs, they ignore it…once in power and in control, they don’t have to back off any more.”
Right. And right now the Labour Party is in power and will be until it initiates an action to remove itself from power. So to stay in power indefinitely, it just has to do…..nothing.
That’s what I heard anyway. Am I wrong? Perhaps one of our British readers could enlighten us.
Starmer seems unlikely to survive the year in power now, with scandals mounting around him and his approval ratings deep underwater thanks to….so, so, so many things. But the general received wisdom is that…. probably the Labour grandees will wait until after the inevitable disaster of the May local elections to pull the trigger on him.
Technically the Labour can wait until 2029 to call an election, as it stands now. They still have a sizable majority (though they will badly lose one notable seat in a by election in a week). But there are ways that could accelerate. It is a massively unpopular government, and generally perceived to be a dead man walking.
A terrible space regulatory body and a moribund space industry is the least of Britain’s problems right now, sad to say.
Skyrora looks to take over being disappointed in looking to usurp Orbex’s property…so it can gather dust from them too.
The UK and China are both Lefty nations –but China at least is going all Hugo Drax on spaceflight at least.
Those dedicated to the values inherent in “Behind the Black,” and the objects of its focus – i.e., all things Space-related, know full well that the moral-political values represented by Western Civilization are a precondition for man’s continuing journey from the mud to the stars.
After leading humanity from the mud via its initial stirrings of freedom’s tenets, Britain then surrendered freedom’s chalice to America. America, in turn, further extricated mankind from the mud toward the stars into what significant portions of humanity now take for granted.
I am afraid Britain will perhaps continue to remind all who are paying attention that without the moral-political legacy necessary for what I call “freedom’s bounty,” a return to the mud is inescapable. Let’s hope a political – if not moral, renewal can occur in Britain.
Meanwhile, we had best mind our business here at home. Failing to properly do so, timeless “mud” awaits all – in spite of the possibility that some of us may soon reside elsewhere. If so, I am reminded that “the moon is a harsh mistress!”
I apologize, Bob, for repeatedly posting my same comment. I shall remain mindful of NOT doing so again!
Dave Walden: No problem really, though I am curious as to why the comment was posted multiple times. It didn’t go into moderation, so it should have appeared quickly. Did it not?
It sometimes takes a while for a post to show up here.
I think we have all made the same mistake at least once.
MrZ is very nice about it.
mkent,
Good question, and the answer is, British law covers that situation. More specifically, the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, clause 4, specifies that it happens *automatically* if the five year term limit is reached without the Government (I.e., the Prime Minister) calling an election by that time:
The last election occurred on July 4, 2024; and the new Parliament first met on July 9, so that’s when the clock started for this current Parliament.
Obviously, though, it is vastly more likely that an election will be held sooner than that. The 2022 law gives the Prime Minister that discretion, and that means a sitting Government has the advantage of picking an election date which is most favorable to it, or at least, as it perceives it, To be sure, however, given the overwhelming unpopularity of Starmer’s government, the real question is going to be, “what is the *least bad* date we could pick?”
This is a little weird to us Yanks, since constitutionally all of our terms of office are fixed.
”If it has not been dissolved earlier, a Parliament dissolves at the beginning of the day that is the fifth anniversary of the day on which it first met.”
Excellent news! The best I’ve heard in a while. I’m happy I was wrong!
Now, the UK just has to last another 3-1/2 years. (I don’t see much chance for early elections. I think Labour will cling to power as long as it can.)