Greg Clark , the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, made this announcement in the course of the Farnborough International Air Show . He promised funding of £33.5 million (around €37.5 million) for this purpose; £23.5 million (€26.4 million) of this will go to the aerospace company Lockheed , which is currently hoping for orders for its F-35 stealth fighter from the German army and will probably be sharing the Scottish launch pad with the startup Orbex.

Orbex itself stayed under the radar for a long time and has only recently gone public, when the company attracted a total of around £30 million (€33.6 million) in capital. The financial backers include the UK Space Agency and the European Space Agency, the Horizon 2020 program of the EU, Sunstone Technology Ventures and the German High-Tech Gründerfonds . In fact, Orbex also has branches in Denmark and Germany. The aerospace company is starting out with a compact satellite launcher rocket, which is not only reusable but, according to Orbex, is also 30% lighter than comparable solutions and uses bio-propane as fuel.