Dawn Aerospace performs first rocket powered flight of its MK-II Aurora aircraft

With a path to provide cheap reliable access to higher altitudes and eventually space, Dawn Aerospace conducted its first rocket-powered test flight of its MK-II Aurora aircraft.

Not a first flight but a big first milestone in development

Dawn Aerospace has flown its MK-II Aurora aircraft several times but not under rocket propulsion. The company has flown its MK-II aircraft 48 times in total with traditional jet engines. Many were multiple flights per day. Last week, the company announced it performed another flight, this time using rocket motors instead of jets.

Dawn calls Aurora a spaceplane, and it’s defiantly working on gaining that title (I don’t know, I guess I’m just picky about what I call my fixed-wing flying machines). Designed to operate like an aircraft but rocket-powered, Aurora can take off and land at runways before flying at much higher altitudes than regular jet-powered planes.

The flight took place actually two weeks ago but wasn’t announced until the previous week. Taking off from Glentanner Aerodrome, New Zealand, Aurora achieved all its test objectives, per the company’s press release. They even provided a sweet video showing off the flight.

Join our Discord Server: Join the community with forums and chatrooms about space!

🎉The future of space transportation is one step closer! Dawn Aerospace's Mk-II Aurora spaceplane completed its first rocket-powered flight campaign last week. 🚀🌌
This is a significant milestone in our company's history. A big shout-out to our amazing team 🌎 🔥#RocketPowered pic.twitter.com/7nVIoUiqRu

— Dawn Aerospace (@DawnAerospace) April 5, 2023

Possible dawn of new access to space

(See what I did there?)

Dawn Aerospace is working towards building a larger, much more capable (truly spaceplane) vehicle called the MK-III Aurora. Based on a proven design but scaled up to be capable of launching a 250 kg payload into orbit with the help of an expendable second stage.

I guess it might be a bit too soon to pump up a company developing an air-launch system less than a week after Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy and laid off the majority of its staff. However, Dawn seems to be doing what Virgin Orbit couldn’t, scale.

It has already shown it can fly multiple flights per day and plan to work towards that also on rocket-powered test flights. The company also has customers and not just for the final product. In an accompanying article, Dawn’s CEO Stefan Powell mentioned that the MK-II might have use cases for high-altitude research. Being able to lift five kg to the Kármán line for “Earth observation, atmospheric research, climate monitoring, communications, microgravity research, and many more.”

The ability to turn your demonstrator aircraft into a potential money-maker will probably make the finance team very happy.