launch services company Orbex is hiring an additional 50 staff over the next six months.

The new team members will support its final push to prepare for a first vertical rocket launch from UK soil.

Many of the new roles will support testing of the complete rocket at the Orbex LP1 launch platform test facility at Kinloss.

The facility allows for full dress rehearsals of rocket launches at the site situated a few miles from the Orbex headquarters in Forres.

The new roles will also strengthen existing teams responsible for key areas of development of the rocket, including propulsion, structures, avionics, machining and embedded software.

Other recruitment areas will facilitate communications between ground staff and the rocket in flight, covering fields such as guidance, navigation and control systems, sensors, data capture, ground segment software and radio engineering.

A further 15 of the new roles will be non-technical positions, which require no past experience of the space or aerospace industry and cover areas such as logistics, finance and procurement.

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