Aerospace biz Orbex shows off a prototype Prime on its Scottish stand

Orbex is showing off a full-scale prototype of the Prime rocket atop its test stand at Kinloss in Scotland. Orbex Prime (pic: Orbex) Orbex Prime prototype In a refreshing change from the PowerPoint and computer-generated visuals so beloved by many in the space industry, the rocket on show was "the full hardware array and …

[Gene Cash]

Licensing

applied for a license from the UK's Civil Aviation Authority

So does that mean there's a group of CAA blokes standing around going "wot's this now? do we do rockets?"

I know it took a bit of poking and prodding for the FAA to get its act together, but they're actually doing a fairly decent job, for a government agency, anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Licensing

The CAA blokes will be saying "What's a license? Do they mean licence?"

Just because American's can't spell correctly, shouldn't mean the rest of the world has to do that too.

[Adair]

What are the odds ...

on a good old fashioned 'KA-BOOM!!!', or two, before anything actually reaches orbit?

You can't beat a good 'KA-BOOM!!!' when prototyping a rocket thingy.

Good on them, by the way, and about time too!

[John Brown (no body)]

I wsa up that way last year...

...if I'd known about them at the time I may well have a had a look. Sadly, looking on Streetview, it seems to be a fairly small and unassuming office building on a small "tech" park. No idea where the build facilities are.

[Spherical Cow]

Zero debris

"Prime is also a re-usable rocket which has been engineered to leave zero debris on Earth and in orbit."

That would mean recovering both stages and all fairings, impressive indeed! Not even SpaceX has achieved that level of reusability for an orbital vehicle (soon, but not yet).