European space technology group Omnidea has acquired the manufacturing assets and intellectual property of collapsed Scottish rocket firm Orbex.
Portugal-based Omnidea will set up its UK operations at Orbex’s former manufacturing facility in Forres.
An initial team of ex-Orbex employees will be re-employed with Omnidea planning to recruit further workers as the operation develops.
Omnidea purchased the Orbex assets from joint administrators at FRP Advisory. The Orbex legal entity is not part of the acquisition, while the Kinloss Test Facility and Sutherland Spaceport assets are being acquired in separate deals.
The two firms were already working as partners in the European Space Agency’s European Launcher Challenge (ELC) and Omnidea has been developing its own suborbital launcher programme with ESA for the past four years.
The Scottish operation will become Omnidea’s centre for structures development and fabrication and a hub for flight and ground-system electronics, complementing the group’s existing expertise in propulsion, fluid systems and other critical space technologies.
While space will remain at the core of the operation, Omnidea will also explore opportunities to apply its technologies and engineering capabilities in other advanced technology markets.
Orbex, which appointed administrators in February, had been close to concluding a deal with The Exploration Company, based in Munich but the talks failed.
Omnidea is a space and advanced technology group with operations across Europe and Australia. It has worked in the European space sector for more than 20 years, developing technologies spanning propulsion and launcher systems, space-qualified fluid-control systems, satellite technologies and advanced engineering.
Sérgio da Cunha Oliveira, vice-president, will lead its operations in the UK. He said: “We see a strong fit between the capabilities we have acquired in Scotland and our existing operations.
“This acquisition means we can combine deep expertise in structures, electronics and advanced manufacturing with the propulsion and fluid-systems capability we have built up over more than two decades.
“Just as importantly, it gives us access to an established base of highly skilled talent and space expertise in the UK.
“Our priority now is to establish a strong and sustainable UK operation in Forres. As a Portuguese company, we’re proud to be contributing to Europe’s ambitions for independent access to space, and to be growing that capability across Europe – and now from a UK base.
“We intend to build progressively, bringing investment, expertise and international connections to the UK as opportunities develop.”
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