Dawn Aerospace CEO Stefan Powell announced that the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane has received certification from the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAA) for the rocket-powered flight campaign. 

The mission of the Mk-II Aurora is to fly to space twice 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 the flight out of a civil airport.

Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace said,

Certification as an aircraft is a crucial step toward our mission, as it allows us to operate without excluding other airspace users. This enables us to integrate with existing airspace and fly as frequently as the vehicle permits, rather than as often as we can clear the airspace.

In the past, by utilizing surrogate jet engines, we have 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.

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.

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 vehicle certification and integration testing completed, we are thrilled to announce that rocket-powered flights are set to begin within the next month.  

Initial flights will continue to follow a build-up approach, as we have done in the past. The first flights will reach modest speeds and altitudes while aiming to maintain the rapid test cadence we have previously demonstrated using surrogate jet engines.

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