written by sharmila kuthunur , on april 6th, 2023
who: dawn aerospace’s space
what: aerospace’s robotic space plane flew with a rocket engine for the first time last month, and did very well
why: to take a major step toward the company’s goal of building a fully and rapidly reusable craft.
interesting paragraph: (para 8) “back in december 2020, dawn aerospace was approved to fly the mk-II aurora out of a conventional airport alongside civil airplanes. airports usually wait until launched rockets exit earth’s atmosphere and sometimes even reroute commercial flights because rockets can leave debris in their wake that can impact passenger planes. dawn’s team says the mk-II aurora stands out in this regard because it is designed to take off and land on a runway, just like an airplane. the space plane thus would not need any special restrictions or dedicated runways.
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