Go Falcon, go D-Orbit, go Dawn! 🚀Congratulations to D-Orbit on a successful launch aboard @SpaceX's Transporter8. We’re proud to supply the propulsion which will now take D-Orbit’s customers on to their operational orbit.The number of Dawn thrusters in space is now 63!✨🛰
Dawn Aerospace has promoted Johann Joubert to the role of Head of In-Space Propulsion.Dawn Aerospace has promoted Johann Joubert to the role of Head of In-Space Propulsion.Dawn Aerospace, a space transportation company based in NZ, the Netherlands, and the United States, is on a mission to provide sustainable and scalable ways to access and move around in space. The company is the fastest growing supplier of green propulsion for satellites in the world and has an ever-growing amount of hardware in space having flown on Falcon 9, Soyuz and Vega rockets. Dawn is also building a spaceplane – a launch vehicle that combines the performance of a rocket with the rapid reusability and fleet economics of an aircraft.Joubert joined Dawn with an impressive background in engineering and space. After several design engineer roles developing hardware and embedded systems in the mining & military industries in South Africa, he got his start in the space industry with Space Advisory Company as a technical advisor to companies building satellites. He went on to become the first South African employee of New Space Systems where he oversaw engineering and led the company’s growth for seven years.Joubert joined Dawn in August last year as a Project Manager role but was recently promoted to the Head of In-Space Propulsion, a 50-person team that was, until recently, led by CEO, Stefan Powell.Joubert said, “It’s great to be in a company that has a massive vision. We’re doing revolutionary things. I’m excited to be leading a team that is disrupting the hydrazine space industry and enabling our clients to offer a complete solution rather than just saying here are the parts, away you go. I think it’s a massive game changer.”Dawns’ systems use readily available fuels, nitrous oxide and propylene, which provide safer handling and huge cost savings compared to traditional hydrazine propulsion.CEO, Stefan Powell said, “I’m super excited to have someone as experienced and capable as Johann to hand the reins to. It’s a key role. In-space propulsion is currently the financial backbone of Dawn. Johan impressed us with not only his technical knowledge but also his leadership skills.”Dawn Aerospace also made headlines earlier this year when they flew their spaceplane technology demonstrator, the Mk-II Aurora, under rocket-power for the first time. Read more about Johann’s career journey here.
Mk-II Aurora looking fine on the cover of @BIS_spaceflight magazine ✨Pick up a copy of the August issue to read @Stefan__Powell's interview on the iterative process we’re taking to turn the long-held dream of a spaceplane into a reality 🚀
Oct 18, 2023Dawn's manufacturing team welcomed a new 5-axis mill to the workshop in July! This was another step in scaling up our production to meet growing customer demand for our in-space propulsion systems.
Dawn aren't the only startup developing spaceplanes.Polaris from Germany are using similar development program to Dawn. Start with subscale technology demostrators before scaling up, adding rocket engine and expanding flight envelope.https://www.polaris-raumflugzeuge.de/Technologyhttps://www.space.com/polaris-spaceplanes-mira-light-flight-test-campaign-complete
Dawn Aerospace achieves key rocket engine milestoneDawn Aerospace has successfully completed a full-duration, bi-propellant test of the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane’s rocket engine. The Mk-IIA engine was fired for 112 seconds at their test facility in Christchurch, New Zealand. This engine will be fitted to the Mk-II Aurora, a subscale technology demonstrator for the Mk-III – Dawn’s two-stage to orbit solution for scalable and sustainable space access. The Mk-II Aurora has already completed 50 test flights, 47 with jet engines and 3 under rocket power in March 2023. Dawn’s propulsion team have been working on improvements in preparation for the next set of flight tests, set to take the vehicle to supersonic speeds and above 20km altitude in early 2024 to complete the test campaign of the Mk-IIA. The rocket engine utilizes HTP and kerosene as propellants, rather than the more commonly used liquid oxygen, due to their storability and deep throttling capabilities. These are crucial factors as Dawn builds towards having a global fleet of spaceplanes with aircraft-like operations. Ralph Huijsman, Lead Propulsion Engineer, commented: “While HTP is the right long-term choice for the spaceplane, it led to some interesting challenges in the development of the engine. The available information is extremely limited and is often outdated or walled off. This meant we ran into some fundamental challenges along the way that were difficult to engineer our way out of. That makes this achievement even more special. It is exciting to see everything come together and work flawlessly.” CEO of Dawn Aerospace, Stefan Powell said: “The team has put in significant work to reach this milestone. We're excited about our future flights where we’ll fly MUCH higher and faster than ever before.” The next phase in the development roadmap for the Mk-IIA is to test critical aspects of operating the vehicle such as high-altitude operations and BVLOS flights (beyond visual line of sight). The Mk-IIB will incorporate all the learnings from the Mk-IIA to achieve an optimised vehicle for flights to 100 km. In doing so, it will be the first vehicle to fly to space twice in a day. The Mk-IIB will be a uniquely capable vehicle with commercial applications in atmospheric, microgravity, and high-speed flight research as well as earth observation.
Ralph Huijsman, Lead Propulsion Engineer, commented: “While HTP is the right long-term choice for the spaceplane, it led to some interesting challenges in the development of the engine. The available information is extremely limited and is often outdated or walled off. This meant we ran into some fundamental challenges along the way that were difficult to engineer our way out of. That makes this achievement even more special. It is exciting to see everything come together and work flawlessly.”
Quote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 12/12/2023 03:31 amRalph Huijsman, Lead Propulsion Engineer, commented: “While HTP is the right long-term choice for the spaceplane, it led to some interesting challenges in the development of the engine. The available information is extremely limited and is often outdated or walled off. This meant we ran into some fundamental challenges along the way that were difficult to engineer our way out of. That makes this achievement even more special. It is exciting to see everything come together and work flawlessly.” True. Not the least of which will be the low Isp they'll have to work with in order to 2nd stage launch altitude and velocity. This will make the structural mass available for vehicle (and the 2nd stage it's going to be carrying) even more challenging than with kerolox. Obviously not going for actual SSTO (even the assisted kind Radian are aiming for) helps but that low Isp (a poor jet is looking at Isp of 3000s, 450secs is the vac Isp of the SSME) really hurts structural fraction.I'll wish them good luck. And Merry Christmas to all.
And then - small satellites with an expendable upper stage. Admittedly, Rocketlab probably killed that market - well SpaceX F9 rideshares probably killed it for real.
Part of the engine gets red hot!
Quote from: Emmettvonbrown on 12/13/2023 05:29 pmAnd then - small satellites with an expendable upper stage. Admittedly, Rocketlab probably killed that market - well SpaceX F9 rideshares probably killed it for real.If that market is dead (and I'm not convinced it is), an LV with a rapidly reusable first stage would be just the sort of thing that might be able to reopen it.
I think the beter discription of the purpose for Dawn Aerospace mkII Aurora is :Atmosphere probing vehicle.
Quote from: john smith 19 on 12/13/2023 02:58 pmQuote from: FutureSpaceTourist on 12/12/2023 03:31 amRalph Huijsman, Lead Propulsion Engineer, commented: “While HTP is the right long-term choice for the spaceplane, it led to some interesting challenges in the development of the engine. The available information is extremely limited and is often outdated or walled off. This meant we ran into some fundamental challenges along the way that were difficult to engineer our way out of. That makes this achievement even more special. It is exciting to see everything come together and work flawlessly.” True. Not the least of which will be the low Isp they'll have to work with in order to 2nd stage launch altitude and velocity. This will make the structural mass available for vehicle (and the 2nd stage it's going to be carrying) even more challenging than with kerolox. Obviously not going for actual SSTO (even the assisted kind Radian are aiming for) helps but that low Isp (a poor jet is looking at Isp of 3000s, 450secs is the vac Isp of the SSME) really hurts structural fraction.I'll wish them good luck. And Merry Christmas to all. ISP isn't everything other wise everbody would be using hydrolox. There are operational considerations. Fuel delivery, storage and handling at remote airfields, not cheap or easy with LOX. HTP allows engine to run in lower thrust monopropellant mode, they use this for taxiing and inflight maneuvers, with bipropellant mode used for climb to space, watch the videos.
Part of the engine gets red hot!The other advantage of HTP is its high density. 1.4424 kg/L compared to LOX at 1.149 kg/L. It also has a high oxidiser to fuel ratio, typically over 7! At delta-Vs below 7 km/s, this results in smaller tank sizes compared to kerolox for the same performance. Another advantage is that no ignition source is required. Decomposed HTP will ignite spontaneously with kerosene due to its high decomposed temperature.
Yeah, density is sometimes even more important than Isp, ESPECIALLY for an SSTO rocket.
LOX is also capable of simple densification down to maybe 79-80k just with LN2 (based on the temperature loss through the X33 sub-cooling HX). I think that would get you up to about 1.2Kg/L.
