NZ firm claims ‘Wright Brothers moment’ for spaceflight

New Zealand-Dutch space pioneer Dawn Aerospace has raised $20 million from investors in its latest round of fundraising.

Icehouse Ventures has invested around $10m, one of its largest-ever investments in a New Zealand company.

Dawn, which has also attracted support from GD1 and Movac and says it has a value of $170m, makes propulsion technology for satellites, with its systems on eight operational spacecraft for overseas customers.

It is also flight-testing a reusable spaceplane technology demonstrator, the Dawn Mk-II Aurora, in the South Island.

The $20m will allow the company, based in New Zealand, the Netherlands, and the US, to expand both its satellite propulsion systems and spaceplane development. Propulsion units have launched on SpaceX, Soyuz and Vega launchers.

Phase one testing demonstrated all non-rocket systems on the spaceplane, such as low-speed aerodynamic performance, pilot controllability, reliability, and general airworthiness. The spaceplane was flown as fast as 200 knots (370km/ h) and at an altitude of 2.743km. It has completed around 50 flights since last year. In phase two of the test programme, the Mk-II Aurora will be fitted with a rocket motor which will allow for flights to over 100-km altitude and 3500km/h.

If achieved, the company says it would be the first vehicle ever to reach space twice in a day, which cofounder and chief executive Stefan Powell has described as a “Wright Brothers moment” for reusable spaceflight.

The Mk-II is intended to prove the core technology needed for a fully and rapidly reusable first-stage booster.

Once the Mk-II Aurora is proven under rocket power, a much larger Mk-III vehicle will be built.