UK invested in Orbex in January, ditched it in November & will decide where to put $131M in unallocated ESA launcher funds

TUPPER LAKE, NY — The European Space Agency (ESA) European Launcher Challenge proved remarkably popular among subscribing ESA governments during the agency’s Nov. 26-27 ministerial conference.

The agency had selected five startup launch service providers and had set a funding target of up to 169 million euros ($197 million) per launcher, for a total of 845 million euros. In the event, when the final counting was completed on Dec. 1 the ELV program had secured 902.16 million euros — $1.05 billion.

The funding . . .

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