Orbex Prime

Orbex Prime launch vehicle. 

With its Boost! programme, ESA is boosting commercial initiatives that offer transportation services to space, in space, and returning from space. The programme also supports Member States implementing national objectives for spaceports, testing facilities and more.

Boost! co-funding awarded in November 2024 will allow Orbex to proceed towards the first demonstration flight of its Prime launch vehicle. It covers important steps towards qualifying carbon-fibre fuel tanks and the integrated testing and launch of Prime.

Orbex is a European company, developing its Prime two-stage rocket that will launch small satellites up to 180 kg to low Earth orbits. Headquartered in Scotland, UK, and with a site in Denmark, the company’s Prime rocket measures 19 m high and is powered by a cluster of 3D-printed engines that run on liquid oxygen and bio-propane, a clean-burning renewable fuel. Prime is also being designed to be reusable in the future.

Orbex Prime will use a bio-propane propellant made from sustainable resources, such as plant and vegetable waste to reduce the rocket’s environmental footprint. 

ESA has signed a contract with Orbex to support the development of the Sutherland Spaceport in the UK as a launch pad for its Prime rocket, emphasising innovations to make launching small satellites into orbit as environmentally friendly as possible. The contract was signed as part of ESA’s Boost! Initiative.