Dawn Aerospace's success thanks to commercialisation of space

6:37 pm today

Dawn Mk-II Aurora in flight at 82,500 feet.

Photo: Supplied/Dawn Aerospace

The head of a Dutch-New Zealand aerospace company says its success is partly driven by the commercialisation of space.

Dawn Aerospace's value has sky-rocketed to more than $330 million after a cash injection from largely international investors.

Its latest funding round has raised more than $40m.

Chief executive Stefan Powell told Checkpoint space has been on the up-tick for a number of years.

"The commercialisation of space, electronics getting smaller, satellites getting more prevalent has been there for a while," he said.

"And more recently, national security concerns are certainly driving things, a lot of the intelligence that agencies get comes from space, a lot of critical communications come from space."

The company was developing a refuelling system for satellites, meaning they would work for longer, potentially reducing space junk.

At moment when satellites run out of fuel they're effectively destroyed or can be left to drift in space.

Dawn Aeorospace's Aurora craft is expected to be the first vehicle to fly above the imaginary line between Earth's atmosphere and outer space next year - the Kaman line - twice in one day.

Powell said that would be a capability humanity has never had.

"Rockets that go to space, be it sub-orbit or all the way into orbit, they've always been expendable," Powell said.

"We're developing vehicles that are truly, rapidly reusable, it's not just refurbishable like the space shuttle was, but you can reuse it in the same way that you'd reuse any other aircraft."

This meant turnaround times to get to space would go from weeks or months to hours, Powell said.

"A scientist that wants to go to space to understand how to grow better drugs for cancer treatments, instead of being able to go to space once a year, now they can go to space twice in a day," he said.

Powell said Aurora looked, was operated, and regulated as an aircraft.

"The main difference is that it doesn't have a jet engine, which breathes air, it has a rocket engine which has all of its air and fuel onboard the plane."

After take-off, Aurora points itself straight up, flying like a traditional rocket, he said.

"[Aurora] gets going so fast it'll actually coast all the way up to above 100 km altitude, at that point it falls back down to Earth, re-enters the atmosphere, and then glides home."

The whole trip from take-off to landing would take about 30 minutes, Powell said.

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