Rocket-Powered Flight Certification Granted to Dawn Aerospace
The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAA) has certified the Dawn Aerospace Mk-II Aurora spaceplane for rocket-powered flight. The mission of the Mk-II Aurora is to fly to space twice in a day and, in doing so, demonstrate that rocket-powered systems can be as reusable as commercial aircraft. This marks the first time a remotely piloted, rocket-powered vehicle has been certified for flight out of a civil airport.
"Our team has been diligently designing and building the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane since 2018. We have completed 48 test flights using jet engines, validating all non-rocket systems." Dawn Aerospace CEO Stephan Powell.
Dawn Aerospace CEO Stephan Powell.
Certification as an aircraft is a crucial step towards the Dawn Aerospace mission, as it allows the company to operate without excluding other airspace users. This enables the company to integrate with existing airspace and fly as frequently as the vehicle permits, rather than as often as the airspace can be cleared.
In the past, utilizing surrogate jet engines, Dawn Aerospace has achieved two flights within hours and four flights in a day. Rapid reusability is a key property that enables both swift iteration in development and unparalleled utility of the end product.
Aside from being a key technology demonstrator, the Mk-II holds significant commercial promise as a suborbital vehicle, spanning a wide range of applications such as earth monitoring, microgravity research, disaster management, and in-situ atmospheric measurements - providing unprecedented enhancements to weather and climate models.
Rocket-Powered Flight Certification Follow Extensive Test-Flight Campaign
"Our team has been diligently designing and building the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane since 2018. We have completed 48 test flights using jet engines, validating all non-rocket systems," said Dawn Aerospace Stephan Powell.
"We have now also concluded static integrated testing of the Mk-II Aurora engine. During the rocket engine's development, it was fired 112 times, including seven instances where it was integrated with the vehicle."
With rocket-powered certification of the vehicle and integration testing completed, Dawn Aerospace is now set to begin rocket-powered flights within the next month.
Initial flights will continue to follow a build-up approach, as has been done in the past. The first flights will reach modest speeds and altitudes while aiming to maintain the rapid test cadence that has been previously demonstrated using surrogate jet engines.
(Source: Dawn Aerospace news release. Images provided and from file)