Proactive Investors - UK rocket launch startup Orbex and French giant Arianespace said they are working together to see if potential future collaborations might be possible.
Based in Forres, near Inverness, Orbex is developing its own low-emission rocket and last month began construction of its own vertical launch site on the northern coast of Scotland.
The agreement signed today "aims to increase the joint capabilities and flexibility of both partners’ services", the companies said, with a focus on helping client companies that are planning to launch 'constellations' of small satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO).
Orbex, which has so far signed commercial launch contracts with seven customers, has designed its 19-metre long Prime rocket to lift up to 180kg of customer payloads.
Ariane, on the other hand, currently offers its customers a choice of three rocket launch vehicles: Ariane 5 for heavy lifting of 21,000kg to LEO and over 10,000kg to geostationary transfer orbit, Soyuz-2 as a medium-lift option, and even Vega for lighter payloads of 300-2500kg is far larger than Orbex's rocket.
The companies said a combination of "light and heavy-lift launch vehicles could jointly support customers in deploying their initial constellations into the required orbital planes, provide precise injections of a smaller number of satellites through dedicated missions, as well as provide replenishment and replacement launches".
Prime is also powered by a renewable fuel, bio-propane, which it says reduces carbon emissions "significantly" compared to other similarly sized rockets, with one study showing a single launch will produce up to 96% lower carbon emissions than comparable space launch systems using fossil fuels.
Orbex chief executive Martin Coates said the collaboration "holds a lot of promise for the European launch market and we’re excited to see where we can take this".
"We are clearly very pleased that Arianespace has chosen to work with Orbex. We already have a strong position in the emerging European microlauncher market and this cooperation could take us even further commercially."
Last October the Scottish company raised £40.4mln in a funding round to step up development of its rocket and last month began construction of Sutherland Spaceport.
The company is aiming to launch up to 12 rockets per year from Sutherland, which when complete will be the first vertical launch spaceport to be built on the UK mainland and also potentially the first carbon-neutral spaceport.
Jacobs Solutions Inc (NYSE:J), which manages NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, is overseeing construction and is an investor in Orbex.