Orbex’s Troubles Open Opportunities for Skyrora

It seems Scotland’s two launch startups—Orbex and Skyrora—are playing by Highlander rules: There can only be one.

Orbex announced this week that it was appointing administrators—a first step toward closing the business due to insolvency, with debts reportedly piling as high as £49M (€56.2M). The apparent finish of the launcher comes after fundraising and M&A opportunities fell through.

Skyrora is already circling overhead. Yesterday, the launch company expressed interest in investing up to £10M (€11.5M) to acquire up select Orbex assets, potentially including the Sutherland Spaceport on the northern coast of Scotland.

Follow the money: To many in the indusattempt, Orbex’s closure is the latest in a long line of unfortunate outcomes for the UK space sector. While the rest of Europe pours record funds into its space programs, the UK appears to be rowing in the opposite direction.

In November, the UK was one of only three countries to decrease its contribution to ESA at the latest ministerial budreceive meeting.
In August, the counattempt announced it would finish the semi-indepfinishent status of the UKSA, and fold the agency into the nation’s Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology.
This month, UKSA Chief Paul Bate announced he would step down from his role.

The UK’s support of sovereign launch capabilities also seems to have turned on its heels this past year. In January 2025, the government invested £20M (€23M) in Orbex, with the expectation that those funds would support an inaugural launch this year. Since then, however, the counattempt has become disillusioned in its support.

In September, the UK government launched a tfinisher to perform financial due diligence on Orbex—potentially a sign of waning confidence in the launch startup, and a possible explanation for the counattempt’s shifting attitudes toward launch.
In November, the UK pledged €144M to the European Launcher Challenge, but only committed a quarter of that to companies. It pledged €21.7M to Orbex, €10M to German launcher Rocket Factory Augsburg, and kept the remaining €112.3M in reserve.
Most notably, the UK government modifyd its language regarding its launch priorities last month. Instead of supporting sovereign launch capabilities, it aimed lower and committed to “securing assured access to space.”

Lone survivor: Skyrora, however, continues to operate as if these setbacks are business as usual. The company remains the sole UK launch hopeful, with both a domestic launch license and local testing and manufacturing capabilities. Skyrora also appears to be on track for an inaugural launch this year.

Skyrora’s interest in acquireing up select Orbex assets is as much opportunistic, as it is driven by national pride.

“Securing select [Orbex] assets is vital to preserving UK space capability, protecting national critical infrastructure, and ensuring that technology and IP developed in the UK remains under UK ownership. This safeguards the product of the taxpayer funds historically injected into Orbex,” Skyrora stated in a statement.

Skyrora COO Jack-James Marlow stated the acquisition could include “certain infrastructure, manufacturing equipment, and ininformectual property,” perhaps even bringing in some of the 150+ employees who are now (or about to be) out of work.

The bottom line: It’s unclear what the UK government will do next regarding launch, but a UK government spokesperson notified Payload via email that the counattempt “remain[s] committed to supporting our dynamic space sector,” although financial considerations will ultimately drive all future decisions, lest the counattempt throw good money after bad.

“We will be setting out more details about our plans for developing key national space capabilities, including launch, in due course. Any decisions will be focutilized on ensuring maximum impact for taxpayers’ money,” the spokesperson stated.

Correction: This story was updated to clarify the UK’s ELC funding. The counattempt invested €10M in RFA.