Spaceflight Company Orbex unveiled the full-scale prototype of its innovative reusable Prime rocket. In the coming future, it will launch small satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Hub Sutherland in northern Scotland.
The UK is the first European nation to unveil a re-usable micro-launcher. It is going to be the World’s most environmentally friendly rocket.
Here are some of its features:
- This rocket will be fully reusable.
- It is a 19-m (62-ft), two-stage rocket.
- It will have carbon/graphite components.
- Moreover there will be seven Anglo-Danish 3D-printed engines – six in the first stage and one in the second stage.
- The rocket will be using a renewable bio-fuel called bio-propane.
- The rocket is designed to leave zero debris during the launch.
- In addition it will produce 96% lower net carbon emissions than conventionally-fueled launchers.
Orbex CEO Chris Larmour, said, “This is a major milestone for Orbex and highlights just how far along our development path we now are. From the outside, it might look like an ordinary rocket, but on the inside, Prime is unlike anything else,”
“To deliver the performance and environmental sustainability we wanted from a 21st-century rocket we had to innovate in a wide number of areas – low-carbon fuels, fully 3D-printed rocket engines, very lightweight fuel tanks, and a novel, low-mass reusability technology.”
But Prime will undergo extensive testing and launch rehearsals at a test facility in the village of Kinloss, Scotland.
