Dawn Aerospace

Full system 🔥 hotfire🔥 test complete ✅. We are now flight-ready for Campaign 2-3 and attempting to fly supersonic! Yesterday at the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Center, we completed the final full system, to prove all systems are ready to push the limits once again. Just 4 weeks ago, we were out flying, reaching Mach 0.92 and 50,000ft. Since then, the team has been busy with upgrades: -reduced the vehicle dry mass by 3% 📉 -increase engine thrust by +9% 📈 -added ‘run dry’ capability to the propellant pumps, giving us nearly 100% propellant utilisation. ⛽ All these upgrades give us plenty of performance margin to get to the upper layers of the stratosphere and fly supersonic. We anticipate our next flight test campaign to be in September, weather permitting. This is incremental development in action!

Efficiency or Responsiveness: What Matters Most in LEO? 🌍🛰️ ⚡ Electric propulsion, while good for Isp, is generally unsuitable for rapid maneuvers due to their slow start-up 🐢⏳ and longer time to reach operational orbit. By comparison, chemical propulsion not only enables satellites to reach their destinations quickly, but Dawn’s propellant combination is also cold-gas capable. This allows the system to bypass its usual ignition to produce instantaneous thrust in situations where urgency is required, making them ideally suited for rapid response situations. 🛰️💨 🔗 Read more here, in our latest blog post on benefits and trade-offs between electric and chemical propulsion in space: https://lnkd.in/gauUheis #SatellitePropulsion #SpaceTech #VLEO #responsiveness 

🎉 🛫 First Mk-II Aurora contract in the bag! 🛫 🎉 We are excited to announce our partnership with Scout Space for a first-of-its-kind tactically responsive VLEO space domain awareness capability! This will be the first of many commercial applications for the Mk-II Aurora. A technology demonstration flight is planned for November of this year from the Tāwhaki National Aerospace Center. A word from our CEO, Stefan Powell, on the partnership: “Customers like Scout Space see the potential to pair their product with our unique platform to create whole new capabilities and markets. The fact that we have customers wanting to get involved already, even though we are still in the development phase, is indicative of just how game-changing this is. We are very excited to bring these new markets to life with Scout Space” https://lnkd.in/d9z9U86Y

🛰 Self-Pressurizing Thrusters For More Simplified Space Propulsion 🔧🔩 🌱 As the green propulsion industry advances, one of the most significant yet under-appreciated benefits is the use of self-pressurizing nitrous oxide thrusters. These systems streamline the entire propulsion process, offering several key advantages: ✅ No helium ✅ No regulator ✅ No propellant management device (PMD)s  The result? A more efficient, cost-effective propulsion solution that speeds up deployment without compromising on performance. Discover more in our nitrous blog post:  Transitioning Space Propulsion to a Nitrous-Based Industry Standard - https://lnkd.in/dGYeeXVy #InSpacePropulsion #ChemicalPropulsion #Nitrous

⏳🛰️ Every Day in Space Counts 📡⏳ That's why we want our customer's to know chemical propulsion systems get their LEO satellites to operational orbit fast, so the value of the payload is maximised. Phasing can take place in as little as two days! 🌍 🛰️💨 Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gauUheis

Last week's Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat) in Utah was a blast! ⛽️🛰️ Our highlight: sharing Dawn's refueling capabilities, which are coming to market! We also were stoked to showed off some of our latest Mk-II Aurora flight footage at 50,000 ft ✈️ If you missed hearing more, check out the latest docking and fueling port update here: https://lnkd.in/ddJgvKRC, and get in touch!

📣 🛫 Flight testing update - Campaign 2-2 🛫 📣 In late July, we conducted three flights, the last of which reached Mach 0.92 (967 km/h) and 50,000 ft (15.1 km). That is more than three times faster and higher than we have ever flown before! This was another significant step forward for the Mk-II on its path to becoming the highest and fastest flying aircraft ever to take off and land on a runway. It sets us up to fly supersonic in the next test campaign! This was the first campaign intended to explore the vehicle's performance, but it is just a glimpse of what is to come and what "building an aircraft with the performance of a rocket" really means. We took this opportunity to describe in detail why this philosophy is so important to us, how it enables rapid and efficient learning, and where we are going from here. Check out the blog along with some photos from the campaign. https://lnkd.in/e9Mw95NS

Next stop: Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat), Utah! We are stoked this year to come with more heritage as the fastest-growing 📈 high-performance 🔥 and low-cost 💸 green propulsion provider in the industry. Come find our team to talk refueling, chemical propulsion, SatDrive and CubeDrives. #smallsat2024

🛰️️⛽️Exciting Refueling News from Dawn Aerospace!⛽️🛰️️ Dawn is on a mission to bring scalable and sustainable mobility to every satellite. We started by revolutionizing the fuels satellites use. In 2021, we were the first (of now many!) to make nitrous in-space propulsion a reality, and have customers all over the world lining up to use it.We are excited to unveil the next step in that journey with the unveiling of our docking and refueling port! From 2025 onwards, Dawn SatDrive propulsion systems will be equipped with our docking and refueling port as standard and at no extra cost, replacing the manual propellant service valves.We are doing this because we believe in the unforeseeable future – we don’t know who, when or how the satellite refuling story will play out. We only know that the sooner satellites are ready for it, the sooner they will reap the benefits; major life extension, VLEO missions, dynamic space operations, and a mission not limited by your one tank of gas. Read the full PRESS RELEASE here: https://lnkd.in/ddJgvKRC #docking #refueling #sustainability

🚀🌌 Revenue Impact of Electric Propulsion In our latest blog, we explore the impact on revenue of the slow deployment of electric propulsion. Here's a quick look at revenue lost due to phasing and deorbiting, assuming 90 days phasing + 50 days to deorbit: Communications Telesat LEO Satellite - $22m Daily value per satellite: $8,780 Potential lost revenue over life of mission: $1,317,000 We think every day counts. To learn more about how green chemical propulsion can maximize your mission, read our latest blog and download the one-pager here: https://lnkd.in/gauUheis