Scottish space firm bolstered by addition of experienced space sector advisor
ONE of the European space sector’s high profile figures has joined the Board of Directors at an innovative startup working to transform how space launch companies control their orbital rockets.
Aurora Avionics, the emerging leader in high-reliability avionics controllers for launch vehicles and robotics in extreme environments, has appointed Chris Larmour, the founder and former CEO of Orbex, the space rocket company based in Scotland, as a non-executive director.
“Chris brings a huge amount of experience and a broad network of connections that will help Aurora be commercially successful, assisting us in getting to the next level. His advice and backing is a significant boost for us as we develop our technology and proposition,” said Oren Smith-Carpenter, Aurora Avionics CEO.
Larmour is widely known within the UK and European space sector and raised around $100 million in venture capital and public funding at Orbex during his tenure as CEO. Orbex now employs more than 200 people.
Aurora is on a mission to revolutionise the electronic control systems, called avionics, that serve as a rocket’s central nervous system. Its co-founders, Oren Smith-Carpenter and Rowland Fraser are both former Orbex employees and experienced aerospace engineers.
The firm recently closed a £320,000 funding round, supported by Scottish Enterprise and the Gabriel group of angel investors, and was recently selected for Scottish Enterprise’s High Growth Ventures cluster. Aurora is co-located with the European Space Agency (ESA) at the Higgs Innovation Centre in Edinburgh, and has just moved into a new laboratory and qualification facility.
“I’m delighted to have been asked to join the board at Aurora and to work with Oren, Rowland and their highly experienced chair Richard Cooper. I know the founders very well. They are building a company to provide high reliability avionics for both small launch vehicles and a wide range of other applications that operate in extreme environments,” said Larmour.
Aurora will be Larmour’s first advisory role following his departure from Orbex, and a signal of the opportunity which Aurora expects to capture within the rapidly growing control subsystems market.
“The exponential growth in demand for putting satellites into space is creating a vast market for launch providers, with many hoping to send rockets into space in the coming months and years. Avionics systems qualified for the harsh space environment presents a costly barrier to entry for rocket firms, with high research and design costs.” said Smith-Carpenter.
To find out more about Aurora Avionics, please visit: https://aav.space/
