Prime

U.K. rocket firm Orbex has unveiled a prototype of its environmentally friendly Prime micro-launcher as it prepares for a debut launch in just a few months.

"From the outside, it might look like an ordinary rocket, but on the inside, Prime is unlike anything else," Larmour said in the statement. The two-stage rocket is fitted with seven 3D-printed engines, six on the first stage, which propels it to the altitude of 50 miles (80 km), and one on the upper stage that inserts the payload into orbit. The rocket, Orbex said in the statement, is "engineered to leave zero debris on Earth and in orbit." With the unveiling, Prime has become the "first micro-launcher developed in Europe to reach this stage of technical readiness," Orbex said in the statement. The U.K. space race has been accelerating lately with plans already in place for a launch of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne this summer from an airport in Cornwall. Unlike Prime and other vertical rockets, Virgin Orbit relies on a carrier aircraft to take its rocket through the first layer of Earth's atmosphere in what is known as a horizontal launch. Orbex, based in Forres, Scotland, just 100 miles (160 kilometers) away from Space Hub Sutherland, told Space.com in an email that the exact date of the launch, which they hope will be the first vertical launch from U.K. soil, will take place "this year or early next year", depending on the progress of the licensing process, the rocket testing and completion of work at the spaceport.

FORRES-based rocket company Orbex has unveiled the first full-scale prototype of the Prime orbital space rocket on its dedicated launch pad.

Orbex is now set to enter a period of integrated testing, allowing dress rehearsals of rocket launches and the development and optimisation of launch procedures. Prime is a 19-metre long, two-stage rocket that is powered by seven engines. Orbex Prime will launch from Space Hub Sutherland, a new spaceport being constructed on the North Coast of Scotland. FORRES-based rocket company Orbex has unveiled the first full-scale prototype of the Prime orbital space rocket on its dedicated launch pad. The unveiling of the first of a new generation of European launch vehicles – designed to send a new category of very small satellites to orbit – represents a major step forward for the company as it prepares for the first ever vertical rocket launch to orbit from UK soil. Orbex unveils first full-scale prototype of Prime space rocket

Orbex has unveiled its 'Prime rocket' which is set to undergo trials at a testing facility in Moray ahead of a launch at Sutherland.

Orbex, a rocket manufacturer based in Forres, has unveiled its 19m (62ft) long Prime orbital space rocket which is set to undergo trials at a testing facility in Moray. The test launchpad is the first to be built in the UK since the High Down Rocket Test Site on the Isle of Wight, which shut in the 1970s. Orbex has unveiled its 'Prime rocket' which is set to undergo trials at a testing facility in Moray ahead of a launch at Sutherland.

Kaja Kallas was 11 at the time. To travel to East Berlin from her native Estonia, then still under Russian occupation as part of the Soviet Union, was a big ...

She leads a small country, but she is taking her message to an international audience: Ukraine’s crisis is a European crisis, and a crisis facing the West as a whole. And second, Estonia can move fast because of its size: “We are a small country, whereas with some very big countries the discussions take more time.” In any case, Kallas is optimistic that others in Europe are broadly on the right path: “When I’m at the table in those discussions with other European leaders, I think the moral compass is showing the right direction. For many, the invasion has proved too huge an event to fit into their way of thinking, with their focus reduced to the immediate and the tactical. “It will be harder and harder to keep the unity. But I think some things you just don’t have to say out loud.” I am reminded of this comment when, later in our discussion, she refers to “countries that have much better neighbours than we do”, saying “they don’t feel it in the way that we feel it”. It is a friendly way of suggesting that some nations farther west have been slower than Estonia in adapting to the “after times”. Some things, indeed, one does not have to say out loud. First, she says, all democratic governments must respond to their voters and “for us [in Estonia] there is very high support for defending Ukraine”. I get a glimpse of that when I wander back down the narrow streets of Toompea Hill and past the Russian embassy in Tallinn, with a glorious display of pro-Ukrainian banners, flags and posters outside. So it means that aggression really pays off.” If this happens, she adds, it will only be a matter of time until Putin acts again: “If Russia is not punished for what they are doing, then there will be a pause of one, two years, and then everything will continue: the atrocities, the human suffering, everything.” She adds that it will not just be Ukraine at risk of an emboldened Putin. “I mean other countries around Russia. Moldova… The imperialistic dream has never died.” Few doubt that Estonia could be a prime target in such a situation. Being a small nation next to a power like Russia and subjected to long years of occupation and domination will do that to you. So they go back and withdraw.” Defeat, she continues, is harder to define and its meaning is ultimately up to Ukraine. Coming from Berlin, where the German establishment has spent recent weeks lost in petty debates about diplomatic protocol and hand-wringing about whether Russia was provoked and whether Ukraine is doing enough for “peace”, I find the force, frankness and moral clarity of her arguments immediately appealing. Theirs is a small country, pressed up against the Baltic Sea and Russia, the north-eastern limit of Nato and the EU in eastern Europe, with a language very different from most other European ones. This clear sense of the principles that matter most – and of turning points in history and what they mean – is the best explanation for Kallas’s growing international profile and influence. Today, as prime minister of Estonia, Kallas has emerged as the EU’s most robust voice for an uncompromising response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is virtually impossible to separate that development from the momentous events of her own early life.

Orbex has claimed the 19-metre long Prime rocket is the first 'micro-launcher' to reach this level of readiness in Europe.

"To deliver the performance and environmental sustainability we wanted from a 21st century rocket we had to innovate in a wide number of areas." Science Minister George Freeman said: "This is a hugely exciting time for the UK space and satellite sector as we count down to the first satellite launches from UK spaceports later this summer. Orbex has claimed the 19-metre long Prime rocket is the first 'micro-launcher' to reach this level of readiness in Europe.