As of August 6, Dawn Aerospace has completed its first demonstration flight carrying a space domain awareness (SDA) payload from Scout Space, marking a milestone in developing SDA capabilities using a suborbital spaceplane at supersonic speeds. The flight-tested integration of Scout s Morning Sparrow sensor suite aboard Dawn s composites-intensive Aurora platform, operating from a conventional runway at the T whaki National Aerospace Centre in New Zealand.

The mission also marked Scout Space as the first commercial operator to fly on Aurora, a rocket-powered, high-altitude aircraft, under a strategic partnership aimed at creating a first-of-its-kind tactically responsive Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) SDA capability. Morning Sparrow reached a maximum altitude of 67,000 ft and a top speed of Mach 1.03, paving the way for cost-efficient, repeatable, and urgent intelligence-gathering operations that complement traditional satellite-based SDA assets.

Rapidly deployable, high-performance, high-altitude platforms are notoriously few and far between, said Philip Hover-Smoot, CEO of Scout Space. Accelerating flexible access to VLEO represents a leap forward in how we think about taskable surveillance and space security.

The flight showcased Aurora s rapid turnaround capability, with Scout s payload bay accessible until moments before takeoff and data transfer beginning shortly after landing. This is exactly what the Aurora is designed for; repeatable, tactical access to near space, said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace.

Under the current agreement, Scout has the option to fly Sparrow on Aurora for up to 30 flights, while also developing two GEO-class Owl units for autonomous SDA. By enabling high-cadence VLEO observation from suborbital altitudes, the companies aim to redefine how governments and commercial operators monitor space in time-sensitive situations.

Source: www.dawnaerospace.com