Today Dawn Aerospace unveiled its new suborbital spaceplane, the “Dawn Mk-II Aurora”, ahead of an intensive 12 month flight test campaign. The Aurora is the latest development in a series of test vehicles that will one day launch satellites to space.

The B20 qualification thruster has been put through its paces over the last three months, clocking up thousands of burns in preparation for flight. It is now getting close to the end and we wanted to share some preliminary results.

Dawn Aerospace will be at this year’s Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference presenting the Mk-II suborbital vehicle.

The winning individual or team will receive a free payload flight to 100km altitude on the Mk-II in the South Island of New Zealand, valued at ~USD 50,000.

Dawn Aerospace is pleased to announce the signing of an MOU with the Waitaki District Council for suborbital flights out of Oamaru Airport, New Zealand.

Dawn’s nitrous oxide and propene CubeSat propulsion module has proven ready for use in the deep vacuum of space. Backed by the Netherlands Space Office (NSO), testing of Dawn’s unique propulsion technology began last week at the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ESTEC facility in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Dawn has completed the construction of its large in-house vacuum chamber. This was done in support of the D-Orbit ION satellite test campaign, but further enhances our capabilities for rapid iterations on all propulsion products.

The NZ Government is supporting in the development of Dawn’s environmentally friendly satellite propulsion technology, aimed at displacing the deadly toxic fuel hydrazine through its $3 million Catalyst Space Fund.

Dawn will be joining this year’s Reinventing Space (RiS) Conference, 12-14 November 2019 in Belfast. Come listen to CEO, Jeroen Wink talk about Dawn’s PM200 green bi-propellant propulsion module qualification testing and in-orbit demonstration.

Hiber have announced a CubeSat propulsion contract with Dawn for the Hiber-3 and Hiber-4 satellites. The deal was backed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Netherlands Space Office via the ARTES programme.

Excited to announce that Dawn Aerospace is a ‘Best Emerging Business - Finalist’ for the 2019 NZ International Business Awards.

Dawn Aerospace has been awarded a Phase 1 contract for Small Business Innovation Research from the United States Airforce.

NASA’s 747 Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is in Christchurch. Dawn popped over to take a look with DLR, the German Aerospace Center.

Dawn has successfully passed European Space Agency qualification standards for their 3D printed pressure vessels used in their satellite propulsion systems.

YES!Delft has named Dawn Aerospace ‘2019 Rookie of the Year’ and the incubator’s best new start-up.

Dawn is proud to announce funding has been received from the New Zealand government-backed Callaghan Innovation. This grant has been awarded to accelerate the development of Dawn’s Mk-II vehicle, a completely reusable sub-orbital flight aircraft that aims to fly to space multiple times per day.

Today Dawn’s Mk-I vehicle achieved autonomous rocket power in flight, multiple times per hour. This marks an important milestone in the development of Dawn’s reusable launcher.

Our full sensory system integration has allowed us to conduct our first fully-autonomous flight, from roll out to wheels stopped.

A couple of months of development have paid off with our first from-scratch engine completing qualification testing. To date we have conducted over 50 burns without having to overhaul or conduct any maintenance.