A small UK propulsion company at Westcott, Buckinghamshire, developing clean rocket engines for satellites and spacecraft.
Protolaunch develops rocket engines for small satellites and spacecraft. Its aim is to offer a safer, more sustainable alternative to toxic propellants such as hydrazine, a fuel that is dangerous to handle. Its products include FOx-1, a 20 newton thruster for precisely deorbiting satellites at the end of their lives, which burns gaseous oxygen with hydrogen or methane. It also has the Arctic FOx range and a larger engine, HILBERT, designed for up to 10 kilonewtons of throttleable thrust and combining traditional and 3D-printed manufacture, which completed a hot-fire programme in 2020. A throttleable engine is one whose power can be turned up and down, like a car's accelerator.
Matt Escott, a Cambridge engineering graduate, and Dr Jack Coghen-Brewster founded the company in 2019, and Mr Escott is chief executive while Dr Coghen-Brewster is chief technology officer. Dr Coghen-Brewster has said they hope to make propulsion a commodity item in spacecraft design, and Mr Escott describes the approach as developing systems for a niche that did not exist five years ago. A Westcott article describes the company's mission as bringing new propulsion products to market quickly, particularly for launching small satellites.
Protolaunch began as a University of Cambridge spin-out and later moved to the ESA Business Incubation Centre at Harwell in Oxfordshire. In August 2021 it returned to Westcott Venture Park in Buckinghamshire, a site with a long history in rocket testing. It is based at the Innovation Centre and leases E Site, a former test area it upgraded with its own test stand and control systems. Mr Escott said the move meant the company controlled its own destiny and could test bigger and more complex technology. It has worked with ESA, the Satellite Applications Catapult and Nammo.
The people side comes from a few details. The team brings expertise in additive manufacturing, control systems and electronics. Mr Escott chairs the UK Space Propulsion Working Group, which brings together industry, academia and government, and the company has supported the UK Race to Space student rocketry competition by testing student-designed engines at its facility. That suggests a small, hands-on firm that likes to share what it knows. We found no information on headcount or working conditions, and the sources are from 2021 to 2023.
Roles at a company like this include propulsion engineers, test and instrumentation engineers, control systems and software specialists, people who build and run test stands, and business leaders who work with customers and agencies. A strong grounding in physics, engineering or chemistry helps, and Westcott offers a place to meet other propulsion firms nearby.
Website: www.protolaunch.co.uk
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